Key takeaways from China’s annual Two Sessions

Following China’s annual Two Sessions meetings, NPR’s Rob Schmitz speaks with Wilson Center’s Robert Daly about China’s state of affairs and its economy.

ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:

The world’s second-biggest economy is struggling, and its leader is consolidating power. China just wrapped up its parliamentary session, called the Two Sessions, an annual event that offers a rare glimpse into the workings of what is becoming a more opaque political system under the helm of one man, 70-year-old Communist Party secretary, Xi Jinping. I’m joined now by Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, to talk about where China’s government goes from here. Welcome, Robert.

ROBERT DALY: Good to be with you.

SCHMITZ: So these Two Sessions meetings are highly choreographed, rubber-stamp sessions of China’s national legislature. But each year, there are signs of the direction that China’s leadership wants to steer the country. What were you able to glean from this year’s event about where China might be headed?

DALY: Well, we learn less and less from the Two Sessions almost every year. As you say, they’re stage-managed, and they’re getting good at clamping down. I think what we learned is that Xi Jinping is determined to stay his course. He’s been nothing if not consistent. And under his leadership, he has taken China from being a increasingly open, developmental state that’s focused on increasing the welfare of the Chinese people to being a closed and increasingly ideological security state. And I think that the question that the Chinese people have been asking is, what does this mean for us going forward? Will we continue to see increases in our standard of living or is it time for a period of privation and readjustment?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, I mean, there are 1.4 billion people in China. How much support do you think Xi Jinping has among this massive population, and what could threaten that support? Or does…