By Dr Austin Maho
The Two Sessions, also known as the “Lianghui,” refer to the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in China. These sessions are crucial to China’s governance, economy, and modernization, they represents China’s representative assembly where crucial decision affecting the social, political and economic fortunes of China are taken. It is the highest organ of state power: The NPC is China’s highest legislative body, responsible for making laws, approving the state budget, and electing top officials.
This years Sessions took place in Beijing between March 4 and 6. The meeting had in attendance
President Xi Jinping who is also the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission in attendance with him was also Chinese Premier Li Qiang and other high ranking Politburo officials and representatives.
The main goal of the meeting is to appraise the trajectory of the peoples republic in the previous year and to make projection for the up coming year, setting goals and agemdas.
These includes GDP target, National economic plans and social development goals and projections. Against the background of Chinese push towards modernization and building moderately prosperous socialist society based on high level production and advancement the main goals of the delegates is to set goals and put modalities in place for their actualization.
It is in his respect that a major outcome of this years two sessions is the projection of a GDP growth of 5% for the Chinese economy, while urban unemployment is not expwcted to rise above 5.5%. There is also a projection to create over 12 million new urban jobs within the 2025 year period in China with a projected growth in personal income vis a vis new job creation.
Other areas include: A projected drop of around 3% in energy consumption per unit of GDP , equilibrium in the balance of payments; Grain production of around 700 million metric tons, improvements in the environment amongst other.
A careful look at the goals set out above clearly indicates a focus by the Chinese towards achieving modernization.
In the words of Premier Li Qiang China aims to to achieve dynamism both at home.and abroad: “in setting the growth rate at around 5%, we have taken into account the need to stabilise employment, prevent risks, and improve the people’s wellbeing as well as the potential for growth and the conditions supporting growth”
Chinese Modernization is hinged on China’s ability to accelerate high level production especially with the country becoming the world’s second-largest economy, China must be able to move from low and and miduim term technological development to high tech to achieve modernization.
Secondly, China must continue to exert itself and deploy more resources towards technological advancements. There is no doubt that China has made significant strides in technological advancements, including artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and space exploration, these efforts and achievements must be built upon.
While China evidently has made remarkable strides in the area of infrastructure it must not rest on its oars. To attain modernization, China must continue to invest heavily in infrastructural development, including transportation networks, urbanization, and telecommunications.
China must continue to pursue its dream of modernisation in line with a drive for a rule based multi- polar world and south south solidarity. The Chinese Dream concept introduced by President Xi Jinping, which aims to restore China’s national pride and achieve a “strong, prosperous, democratic, civilized, and harmonious” society should be a dream shared by all lovers of freedom and peaceful development.
Happily, project “Made in China 2025” plan which aim to upgrade China’s manufacturing capabilities would go a long way in making China a global leader in innovation.
- Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): A massive infrastructure development project aimed at connecting China with other parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
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- Carbon neutrality: China has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060, with a focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green technologies.
Challenges and Opportunities
- Economic slowdown: China’s economic growth has slowed in recent years, posing challenges for its modernization efforts.
- Environmental concerns: China’s rapid industrialization has led to significant environmental concerns, including air and water pollution.
- Social inequality: China’s economic growth has also led to increasing social inequality, with a widening gap between the rich and the poor.
- Global competition: China faces increasing global competition, particularly from the United States, in areas such as technology, trade, and geopolitics.
In a deliberate efforts to attract foreign investments in 2025, Li said China will host major trade events to high standards, such as the International Import and Export Fair, China International Fair for Trade in Services, the Global Digital Trade Expo, and the China International Consumer Products Expo.
Li further maintained that foreign investors will receive better services and support, and the launch of landmark investment projects will be expedited, adding that these efforts would help to make China a favoured destination for foreign investments.
Chinese foreign affairs minister and member of the Political Bureau of China Wang Yi gave a good account of the place of Africa China’s foreign relations.
In the estimation of Wang Yi the global south must stand together in unity and s development. “the hallmark of our era is the prominent, growing strength of the Global South” he said. China-Africa relations, he said should be exploring new development path of self reliance nothing that China and Africa would always be good friends, good partners and good brothers with a shared future.
Recalling FOCAC 2024 he stated that in the past 25 years, China has helped Africa build and upgraded nearly 100,000 kilometres of railways, and in the past three years alone, Chinese enterprises created more than 1.1 million new jobs in Africa.
According to him, Africa is a fertile land of hope of the 21st century. “There will be no global modernisation without African modernisation”.
He said the stability and development of Africa is vital to the future of humanity, and the world must listen to Africa and heed it’s concerns, adding that Africa is going through a new awakening, and countries should support Africa in exploring a new development path of self reliance and self strengthtening.
Explicating on this year’s Two Sessions and it’s targeted goals, analysts observed that Nigeria stands to gain from the outcome of this year’s Two Sessions and China’s targets for development.
As China makes the giant leap towards modernization the global south stands to reap enormous benefits. Benefit would come in terms of technological transfer, infrastrural funding and more strategic partnership.
Nigeria stands to reap bountifully from Chinese modernisation. Only recently the country’s relations with China was upgraded to strategic comprehensive which means that areas of possible cooperation between China and Nigeria have expanded.
To drive home Nigeria’s commitment to our booming partnetship with China a new office, the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) was floated by the federal government. Mr. Joseph Tegbe a renowed technocrat was appointed as Director-General to oversea the office which reports directly to the president. The mandate of the new office clear and it is to see to the seamless implementation of all cooperation agreements signed between Nigeria and China during the last FOCAC summit in Beijing and to accelerate trade and investment coorpetation between Nigeria and China.
The office of the NCSP is key to future partnership between China an Nigeria. Observers are of the opinion that the office should not only promote and support bilateral agreements between Nigeria and China but also become the focal in the protection of Chinese investments and interests in Nigeria as a way of assuring Chinese investors that their investment in Nigeria is safe. The net effect is that it would catalyze more Chinese investment flow into Nigeria. This would be a win- win for both countries and stand as the standard of south south cooperation. As China modernize Nigeria needs more investment especially the passing over of more labor intensive production as a way of solving the countries unemployment problem and bolster the Nigerian economy in critical sectors such as agriculture, mining, telecommunications, energy, health, technology and infrastructure.
National People’s Congress (NPC)
The Two Sessions play a crucial role in China’s governance and modernization efforts. As China continues to pursue its goals of becoming a modern, prosperous, and powerful nation, China has demonstratwd a williness to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in an ever changing world.
