coronavirus pandemic led to the country’s first economic contraction in decades.
The annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference were themselves delayed from their usual date in March for the first time in more than two decades as the Covid-19 disease spread. The meetings, known as the “two sessions”, are mostly rubber stamp affairs which Beijing uses to make public its yearly economic agenda, growth targets, and national budget. The challenges to China’s economy were described as “unprecedented” in the party’s April Politburo meeting.
