Editor’s note for March 8, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
My thoughts today:
The Two Sessions political gabfest continued in Beijing. Nothing substantial was announced today — the most significant announcements so far came out of the first two days of the event.
But today Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 did give a speech to delegations from the the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the People’s Armed Police Force in which he rehashed some of his favorite themes.
He used the word “strategic” (战略 zhànlüè) 18 times, and said that China must “enhance the resilience of industrial supply chains,” and “strengthen the orientation of the national defense science and technology industry to serve a strong army and win wars.”
There has been a lot less reporting on the Two Sessions than in previous years, and officials are no longer interested in speaking to foreign media. CNN correspondent Selina Wang tweeted (with video footage):
It’s only becoming harder to speak to any leadership in China. Two Sessions used to be a rare chance to doorstop top leaders. After yesterday’s plenary, literally had minutes to speak to delegates as they were walking out, majority refused (or some literally ran away).
