The opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference marks the start of the parliamentary season. It will last one week, then the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress will once again take over the legislative process.
The Consultative Conference actually plays a pivotal role in China’s understanding of democracy. The “consultation” of the people replaces elections here. However, the true trend of Chinese democracy was already evident on the first day of the session week: The traditional premier’s press conference will be scrapped.
An ominous sign, as Michael Radunski analyzes. The press conferences of the People’s Congress were the only remaining chance for China correspondents to get close to the ruling leaders at least once a year. But the premiers of the past also used the conference as an opportunity to present their points.
However, according to the official interpretation, the press is redundant for control in China; all power already lies with the people. The CCP claims to uncover grievances and corruption much more effectively than the media could. Xi Jinping calls this the concept of “whole-process people’s democracy” 全过程人民民主. In its current form, we simply call it dictatorship with an annual parliamentary folklore.
When Lou Qinjian stepped in front of the press in Beijing on Monday, everything looked routine. The spokesman for the National People’s Congress (NPC) informs the press about the schedule and topics of Tuesday’s session. At the end of his address, Lou announces that the Premier’s obligatory press conference at the conclusion of the NPC will no longer be held – not this year, and not in the future either. Unless there are “special circumstances.”
This marks a departure from decades of tradition – and also shows the current state of China: The People’s Republic is becoming increasingly closed to the outside world. Even the harmless, thoroughly planned exchange between the Premier and journalists at the People’s Congress has now been scrapped. And domestically, the cancellation of the press conference represents a significant loss of strength for the Premier. The organizational number two behind President Xi Jinping continues to lose ground.
It is yet another step that shows how much China is closing itself off at all levels. A few years ago, the People’s Congress even praised the value of the press conference. In 2018, the official WeChat account stated that the press conference was “one of the important windows for observing China’s openness and transparency.”
The move fits all too well into the current picture. Last year, the government stopped publishing several important economic data – for instance, the rapidly rising youth unemployment rate at the time. The all-important Third Plenum of the Central Committee, which usually sets the course of Chinese economic policy, has also apparently been scrapped. It was supposed to be held late last fall.
Fittingly, the People’s Congress will apparently not appoint a new foreign minister. The NPC agenda published on Monday did not include any appointments. It appears that Wang Yi will continue to serve as foreign minister after Qin Gang was ousted without explanation last July.
However, the cancellation of the press conference also has internal consequences. It means a significant loss of power for the Premier, who is actually number two behind party and state leader Xi Jinping. But Xi has long since made himself the “core” of everything. As chairman of dozens of commissions, he rules at all levels and freed himself from constraints such as term limits.
Observers in China also see a positive side to the rejection. “It is also a reflection of Li Qiang’s pragmatism. He focuses on major policy directions, which are all clearly spelled out in his work report,” said Wang Xiangwei, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. “He doesn’t think an additional press conference is necessary as the ministers are in a better position to elaborate on detailed policies, and they will all have press conferences.”
But a look at the past shows: The press conference at the conclusion of the NPC offered the respective premiers the opportunity to make their own statements – directly and in public. Admittedly, the press conferences were carefully orchestrated and journalists’ questions had to be submitted and approved in advance. And yet there have always been exceptional occurrences since 1988.
In 1998, Zhu Rongji impressively told the assembled press how determined he was to fight corruption – even if he himself lost life and limb. Wen Jiabao had caused a stir in 2012 when he warned: “Without the success of political structural reform, it is impossible for us to fully institute economic structural reform.” Wen thus contradicted the intention of many cadres to carry out economic reforms even without political liberalization.
And it was Wen who probably held the longest NPC press conference when he waited for a question that was not asked because the moderator simply refused to allow the US journalist to speak. After three hours, the US journalist finally got a chance to speak: Wen could finally make his point and distance himself from top politician Bo Xilai, who had previously been rumored to be the future president. Bo was deposed a few days later and later arrested.
Time and again, the premier’s press conference has produced news of international significance. In 2020, Li Keqiang sparked a nationwide debate on poverty reduction. At that press conference, Li complained that two-fifths of China’s population earned “not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.”
Remarks like this earned Li Keqiang the reputation of being an economic counterweight to Xi Jinping. Future premiers will no longer have this opportunity – at least not at their own press conference after the National People’s Congress.
Kadri Simson seemed almost pleading on Monday. “We cannot close our borders because we need solar panels,” said the EU Energy Commissioner ahead of the meeting of energy ministers in Brussels. “We have to support our industry, but we need all the products to meet our very ambitious targets.” In other words, the EU needs Chinese solar products so urgently to expand new energy sources that it must leave the doors open to imports.
These words dashed the hopes of some European manufacturers that the Commission would protect them from Chinese dumping module imports. Simson and Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton’s letter to the Council Presidency last Thursday carried the same message.
The paper lists five pages of measures on how to support the European solar industry. However, trade restrictions are not even mentioned. According to Breton and Simson, there will be no further discussions until the second half of the year. In other words, not with this EU Commission.
Instead, Simson and Breton are passing the ball back to the member states – but also to those solar companies that have been campaigning against import restrictions on cheap modules. At the start of the week, Enpal, 1Komma5, EnBW and Vattenfall, among others, unveiled the new Solar Economy Europe (SEE) alliance.
Simson and Breton want to encourage distributors to take responsibility voluntarily: Wholesalers and distributors could commit to including a range of EU-made PV products in their portfolio. Industry sources say a corresponding declaration with voluntary commitments could be signed at one of the next Council meetings in May. However, the letter is also aimed at the member states.
Simson and Breton recommend that EU member states introduce “ambitious sustainability and resilience criteria” in solar system auctions. The Commission thus backs German Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Green Party), who would like to introduce a solar package with resilience bonuses to pay more for electricity from European solar modules. The German Free Democratic Party (FDP) rejects this over cost concerns.
However, in the long term, SolarPower Europe President Aristotelis Chantavas demands that the aid framework also allow subsidies to cover manufacturers’ operating costs. It can be seen as an admission that production will never be cheaper than the Chinese competition.
“China is pursuing a very aggressive industrial policy and sector strategy. China spends almost three to four times more on industry support and subsidies than we do in the West,” says Johan Lindahl, Secretary General of the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC). The industry association represents the interests of the European PV manufacturing industry. Its most prominent members include manufacturers like Meyer Burger and Wackers.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that the People’s Republic spent 1.7 percent of its GDP on industrial support and subsidies in 2019. According to the report “Red Ink: Estimating Chinese Industrial Policy Spending in Comparative Perspective,” France only spent 0.5 percent and Germany 0.4 percent. China’s industrial strategy focuses even more strongly on strategic sectors such as photovoltaics, batteries and electric cars.
Furthermore, the US grants large tax rebates to manufacturers planning to build solar power production projects as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Washington has also introduced import tariffs on Chinese modules. This increases the cost of Chinese modules on the US market.
India also works with subsidies, but to a lesser extent than China, as Lindahl explains. These and other developments have made the European market the most attractive for Chinese manufacturers. “This is why there is such a huge oversupply of modules flowing into Europe. This has led to a drop in prices and a very difficult situation for European module manufacturers,” explains Lindahl.
Lindahl says that his organization has not campaigned for tariffs on Chinese modules. This is because a possible anti-dumping investigation would take one to two years. By the time the investigation is completed, the EU sector will have disappeared.
ESMC has instead advocated emergency measures limited to the next two years. They would apply until the EU legal framework is improved – through legislative packages such as the Net-Zero Industry Act or the ban on goods produced by forced labor.
This could establish a system at the EU level where European-produced modules could be sold at market prices, explains Lindahl, “and then either the EU or the member states would cover the difference between the market price and the current production costs.”
According to the ESMC Secretary General, the difference between the market price and production costs would be 160 million euros. The association estimates that around 880 million euros will be required by 2025 to keep the European sector operating at 40 percent capacity, i.e., to cover personnel costs in 2025 and 2026. In return, such a step would prevent the outflow of 560 million euros from the European economic area and thus reduce the trade imbalance with China, argues Lindahl.
For eight years, as state secretary and minister, Andreas Scheuer was a member of several of Angela Merkel’s governments. With the change of government in 2021, the CSU MP’s time at the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure ended, and he started a career change. “Where are the projects, where can you get involved, also with your experience, with your network?” Scheuer recalls. His areas of expertise include logistics.
“And logistics ties a lot of things together,” says Scheuer. This is also the link to China. “When I look at the dynamics in Asia and also the China strategy that has now been newly developed, you can see that prosperity in Germany and the success of the German economy depend on foreign involvement.” If a politician like him could use his experience and his network to help engage in dialogue not only on values and democracy but also “with regard to our economic interests Made in Germany,” he was willing to lend a hand.
That is why Scheuer decided to become the President of the Asia Bridge in 2022. The non-partisan association is dedicated to promoting cooperation between the countries of the Asia-Pacific region with the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU.
Scheuer is now its face and spokesperson. In order to develop a certain area, a country, three things are particularly important: “That is energy, that is education, and that is infrastructure, perhaps even more so in the last few years, digitalization. But these three areas are where my heart lies,” says the 49-year-old.
One focus of his work is events with experts and networking. “Whenever elections are held, be it in Taiwan, Thailand or the Philippines, or for the party congress in China, there are expert hearings that take place virtually,” he explains. “Then there are, of course, planned delegation trips – about Vietnam, about dialog in India.”
He has recently been to Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Japan and Korea. The political science graduate knows China’s importance to trade and geopolitics. However, the Asia Bridge focuses not only on the People’s Republic but also on all countries in the East Asian region.
“We are a bridge, a bridge in every respect,” says Scheuer. “The nice thing is when something tangible emerges from such an idea.” He visited Vietnam early on and recently traveled there again. This led to the first links between Vietnamese and German companies, as the former federal minister reports. “I was there with young, medium-sized family entrepreneurs who were quite amazed at the immense dynamism that is a reality.”
And yet China remains a key issue for him. Perhaps not necessarily out of a particular fascination with the People’s Republic but primarily because of the influence that Beijing has around the world.
Russia’s war against Ukraine or the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel have also brought about a new dynamic in the Asia Bridge and foreign policy in general. “We will reflect this with our activities. That brings us to the questions: Can grain be delivered? What impact will energy deliveries between Russia and China have?” Something is simply changing for the economy in terms of production and prices, and this has global and strategic implications, including aerospace and digitalization issues, says Scheuer.
As he puts it, the world has become “alarmingly more complicated” in the wake of recent developments. Nevertheless, he is an optimist and now that he is no longer at the cabinet table, he aims to improve Germany’s position through his activities for the Asia Bridge. Constantin Eckner
10,000 meters deep. The Shenditake 1 borehole in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang reached a new record depth on Monday. And it is set to go even deeper, to a depth of 11,100 meters. The drilling project marks a breakthrough in the exploration of Earth’s deep layers. The previous world record was set in the 1970s. A depth of 12,262 meters was reached on the Soviet Kola Peninsula.
The opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference marks the start of the parliamentary season. It will last one week, then the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress will once again take over the legislative process.
The Consultative Conference actually plays a pivotal role in China’s understanding of democracy. The “consultation” of the people replaces elections here. However, the true trend of Chinese democracy was already evident on the first day of the session week: The traditional premier’s press conference will be scrapped.
An ominous sign, as Michael Radunski analyzes. The press conferences of the People’s Congress were the only remaining chance for China correspondents to get close to the ruling leaders at least once a year. But the premiers of the past also used the conference as an opportunity to present their points.
However, according to the official interpretation, the press is redundant for control in China; all power already lies with the people. The CCP claims to uncover grievances and corruption much more effectively than the media could. Xi Jinping calls this the concept of “whole-process people’s democracy” 全过程人民民主. In its current form, we simply call it dictatorship with an annual parliamentary folklore.
When Lou Qinjian stepped in front of the press in Beijing on Monday, everything looked routine. The spokesman for the National People’s Congress (NPC) informs the press about the schedule and topics of Tuesday’s session. At the end of his address, Lou announces that the Premier’s obligatory press conference at the conclusion of the NPC will no longer be held – not this year, and not in the future either. Unless there are “special circumstances.”
This marks a departure from decades of tradition – and also shows the current state of China: The People’s Republic is becoming increasingly closed to the outside world. Even the harmless, thoroughly planned exchange between the Premier and journalists at the People’s Congress has now been scrapped. And domestically, the cancellation of the press conference represents a significant loss of strength for the Premier. The organizational number two behind President Xi Jinping continues to lose ground.
It is yet another step that shows how much China is closing itself off at all levels. A few years ago, the People’s Congress even praised the value of the press conference. In 2018, the official WeChat account stated that the press conference was “one of the important windows for observing China’s openness and transparency.”
The move fits all too well into the current picture. Last year, the government stopped publishing several important economic data – for instance, the rapidly rising youth unemployment rate at the time. The all-important Third Plenum of the Central Committee, which usually sets the course of Chinese economic policy, has also apparently been scrapped. It was supposed to be held late last fall.
Fittingly, the People’s Congress will apparently not appoint a new foreign minister. The NPC agenda published on Monday did not include any appointments. It appears that Wang Yi will continue to serve as foreign minister after Qin Gang was ousted without explanation last July.
However, the cancellation of the press conference also has internal consequences. It means a significant loss of power for the Premier, who is actually number two behind party and state leader Xi Jinping. But Xi has long since made himself the “core” of everything. As chairman of dozens of commissions, he rules at all levels and freed himself from constraints such as term limits.
Observers in China also see a positive side to the rejection. “It is also a reflection of Li Qiang’s pragmatism. He focuses on major policy directions, which are all clearly spelled out in his work report,” said Wang Xiangwei, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. “He doesn’t think an additional press conference is necessary as the ministers are in a better position to elaborate on detailed policies, and they will all have press conferences.”
But a look at the past shows: The press conference at the conclusion of the NPC offered the respective premiers the opportunity to make their own statements – directly and in public. Admittedly, the press conferences were carefully orchestrated and journalists’ questions had to be submitted and approved in advance. And yet there have always been exceptional occurrences since 1988.
In 1998, Zhu Rongji impressively told the assembled press how determined he was to fight corruption – even if he himself lost life and limb. Wen Jiabao had caused a stir in 2012 when he warned: “Without the success of political structural reform, it is impossible for us to fully institute economic structural reform.” Wen thus contradicted the intention of many cadres to carry out economic reforms even without political liberalization.
And it was Wen who probably held the longest NPC press conference when he waited for a question that was not asked because the moderator simply refused to allow the US journalist to speak. After three hours, the US journalist finally got a chance to speak: Wen could finally make his point and distance himself from top politician Bo Xilai, who had previously been rumored to be the future president. Bo was deposed a few days later and later arrested.
Time and again, the premier’s press conference has produced news of international significance. In 2020, Li Keqiang sparked a nationwide debate on poverty reduction. At that press conference, Li complained that two-fifths of China’s population earned “not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.”
Remarks like this earned Li Keqiang the reputation of being an economic counterweight to Xi Jinping. Future premiers will no longer have this opportunity – at least not at their own press conference after the National People’s Congress.
Kadri Simson seemed almost pleading on Monday. “We cannot close our borders because we need solar panels,” said the EU Energy Commissioner ahead of the meeting of energy ministers in Brussels. “We have to support our industry, but we need all the products to meet our very ambitious targets.” In other words, the EU needs Chinese solar products so urgently to expand new energy sources that it must leave the doors open to imports.
These words dashed the hopes of some European manufacturers that the Commission would protect them from Chinese dumping module imports. Simson and Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton’s letter to the Council Presidency last Thursday carried the same message.
The paper lists five pages of measures on how to support the European solar industry. However, trade restrictions are not even mentioned. According to Breton and Simson, there will be no further discussions until the second half of the year. In other words, not with this EU Commission.
Instead, Simson and Breton are passing the ball back to the member states – but also to those solar companies that have been campaigning against import restrictions on cheap modules. At the start of the week, Enpal, 1Komma5, EnBW and Vattenfall, among others, unveiled the new Solar Economy Europe (SEE) alliance.
Simson and Breton want to encourage distributors to take responsibility voluntarily: Wholesalers and distributors could commit to including a range of EU-made PV products in their portfolio. Industry sources say a corresponding declaration with voluntary commitments could be signed at one of the next Council meetings in May. However, the letter is also aimed at the member states.
Simson and Breton recommend that EU member states introduce “ambitious sustainability and resilience criteria” in solar system auctions. The Commission thus backs German Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Green Party), who would like to introduce a solar package with resilience bonuses to pay more for electricity from European solar modules. The German Free Democratic Party (FDP) rejects this over cost concerns.
However, in the long term, SolarPower Europe President Aristotelis Chantavas demands that the aid framework also allow subsidies to cover manufacturers’ operating costs. It can be seen as an admission that production will never be cheaper than the Chinese competition.
“China is pursuing a very aggressive industrial policy and sector strategy. China spends almost three to four times more on industry support and subsidies than we do in the West,” says Johan Lindahl, Secretary General of the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC). The industry association represents the interests of the European PV manufacturing industry. Its most prominent members include manufacturers like Meyer Burger and Wackers.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates that the People’s Republic spent 1.7 percent of its GDP on industrial support and subsidies in 2019. According to the report “Red Ink: Estimating Chinese Industrial Policy Spending in Comparative Perspective,” France only spent 0.5 percent and Germany 0.4 percent. China’s industrial strategy focuses even more strongly on strategic sectors such as photovoltaics, batteries and electric cars.
Furthermore, the US grants large tax rebates to manufacturers planning to build solar power production projects as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Washington has also introduced import tariffs on Chinese modules. This increases the cost of Chinese modules on the US market.
India also works with subsidies, but to a lesser extent than China, as Lindahl explains. These and other developments have made the European market the most attractive for Chinese manufacturers. “This is why there is such a huge oversupply of modules flowing into Europe. This has led to a drop in prices and a very difficult situation for European module manufacturers,” explains Lindahl.
Lindahl says that his organization has not campaigned for tariffs on Chinese modules. This is because a possible anti-dumping investigation would take one to two years. By the time the investigation is completed, the EU sector will have disappeared.
ESMC has instead advocated emergency measures limited to the next two years. They would apply until the EU legal framework is improved – through legislative packages such as the Net-Zero Industry Act or the ban on goods produced by forced labor.
This could establish a system at the EU level where European-produced modules could be sold at market prices, explains Lindahl, “and then either the EU or the member states would cover the difference between the market price and the current production costs.”
According to the ESMC Secretary General, the difference between the market price and production costs would be 160 million euros. The association estimates that around 880 million euros will be required by 2025 to keep the European sector operating at 40 percent capacity, i.e., to cover personnel costs in 2025 and 2026. In return, such a step would prevent the outflow of 560 million euros from the European economic area and thus reduce the trade imbalance with China, argues Lindahl.
For eight years, as state secretary and minister, Andreas Scheuer was a member of several of Angela Merkel’s governments. With the change of government in 2021, the CSU MP’s time at the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure ended, and he started a career change. “Where are the projects, where can you get involved, also with your experience, with your network?” Scheuer recalls. His areas of expertise include logistics.
“And logistics ties a lot of things together,” says Scheuer. This is also the link to China. “When I look at the dynamics in Asia and also the China strategy that has now been newly developed, you can see that prosperity in Germany and the success of the German economy depend on foreign involvement.” If a politician like him could use his experience and his network to help engage in dialogue not only on values and democracy but also “with regard to our economic interests Made in Germany,” he was willing to lend a hand.
That is why Scheuer decided to become the President of the Asia Bridge in 2022. The non-partisan association is dedicated to promoting cooperation between the countries of the Asia-Pacific region with the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU.
Scheuer is now its face and spokesperson. In order to develop a certain area, a country, three things are particularly important: “That is energy, that is education, and that is infrastructure, perhaps even more so in the last few years, digitalization. But these three areas are where my heart lies,” says the 49-year-old.
One focus of his work is events with experts and networking. “Whenever elections are held, be it in Taiwan, Thailand or the Philippines, or for the party congress in China, there are expert hearings that take place virtually,” he explains. “Then there are, of course, planned delegation trips – about Vietnam, about dialog in India.”
He has recently been to Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Japan and Korea. The political science graduate knows China’s importance to trade and geopolitics. However, the Asia Bridge focuses not only on the People’s Republic but also on all countries in the East Asian region.
“We are a bridge, a bridge in every respect,” says Scheuer. “The nice thing is when something tangible emerges from such an idea.” He visited Vietnam early on and recently traveled there again. This led to the first links between Vietnamese and German companies, as the former federal minister reports. “I was there with young, medium-sized family entrepreneurs who were quite amazed at the immense dynamism that is a reality.”
And yet China remains a key issue for him. Perhaps not necessarily out of a particular fascination with the People’s Republic but primarily because of the influence that Beijing has around the world.
Russia’s war against Ukraine or the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel have also brought about a new dynamic in the Asia Bridge and foreign policy in general. “We will reflect this with our activities. That brings us to the questions: Can grain be delivered? What impact will energy deliveries between Russia and China have?” Something is simply changing for the economy in terms of production and prices, and this has global and strategic implications, including aerospace and digitalization issues, says Scheuer.
As he puts it, the world has become “alarmingly more complicated” in the wake of recent developments. Nevertheless, he is an optimist and now that he is no longer at the cabinet table, he aims to improve Germany’s position through his activities for the Asia Bridge. Constantin Eckner
10,000 meters deep. The Shenditake 1 borehole in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang reached a new record depth on Monday. And it is set to go even deeper, to a depth of 11,100 meters. The drilling project marks a breakthrough in the exploration of Earth’s deep layers. The previous world record was set in the 1970s. A depth of 12,262 meters was reached on the Soviet Kola Peninsula.
