The cancellation of the Chinese premier’s annual press conference, often interpreted as a sign of Xi Jinping’s further sucking of political power into himself—no light can escape Xi—is interpreted otherwise by some.
Huizhong Wu of the Associated Press reports (“Chinese legislature’s meetings return, but the limited openness they once had is gone,” March 12, 2024):
“The government’s cancellation of this press conference is in line with our country’s movement towards a more frugal lifestyle,” said Huang Chunqiu, a National People’s Congress representative, nodding enthusiastically as she spoke. “Everyone should be diligent and thrifty, and in the new year, everyone should unite and forge ahead for a better life.”
Sure, nod away. I don’t remember seeing this rationalization elsewhere, at least not in this form. Is it her own peculiar spin on the party line? Something her propaganda interns had to work overtime to come up with?
It’s priceless. Of course the government had to cancel Premier Li Qiang’s annual press conference. Of course. How else to promote diligence, frugality, unity, and “forging ahead for a better life”? How else are we going to balance the budget, put a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage, ensure that all the rainbows retain the full range of color, and prove Fermat’s Theorem once and for all?
Maybe Huang didn’t mention Fermat’s Theorem, but the point is that you are going to have a tougher time getting people to be diligent and clip coupons if you don’t cancel Premier Li Qiang’s press conference. That press conference (so far held only once; Li is new to the job) was the one thing standing in the way of full moral regeneration and a better tomorrow for all of China’s hundreds of millions of people. If Qiang had not been stopped now—well, he might have held another press conference, that’s for sure.
The truth in the lie is the reference to “unity.” The Chinese Communist Party is a big fan of unity, and Dictator Xi Jinping is the biggest fan of all. He is trying to control everything and get it all to go one uni-way, which, since he can’t be everywhere at once, means controlling everybody who controls everybody who controls everybody who controls everything. It seems that the existence of a much-awaited annual press conference by the number two guy may have detracted from or distracted from Xi’s control of everything.
Chucking Li Qiang’s media chat is just one sign that the openness—the pseudo-openness—of China’s national legislative meetings is fading.
Officials say China is back to business, but in practice, the meetings have become even more tightly scripted to convey Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s message, leaving little room for the spontaneity and open engagement the sessions once offered before COVID-19.
The Two Sessions, as the meetings are called, lasted just one week — half their length before the pandemic. Delegates no longer mingle with journalists in open-door sessions as they used to just a few years ago. Reporters were in some instances physically barred from approaching officials….
Past leaders, such as Jiang Zemin, held interviews with foreign media, talking about Tibet and the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with 60 Minutes, the U.S. TV program known for investigative reports.
Before that, foreign reporters were able to grill the former general secretary of the Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, said Chinoy, the former CNN Beijing bureau chief.
“He took questions without anyone vetting anything,” Chinoy said. He asked the secretary a question about Tibet, which had just experienced violent riots in September 1987.
“I got an earful of the party line,” he said of Zhao’s response. But he said he hasn’t had such unfettered exchanges since then.
An “unfettered exchange” in which you get only the party line in response isn’t all that unfettered. In any case, there are many sources of CCP propaganda in the People’s Republic of China and its various embassies and consulates. If reporters have trouble getting access to the latest party line at the Two Sessions, somebody somewhere will condescend to tell them.
