Chinese Regime Starts Top Political Meetings Amid Economic, Political Crises

The crises are rooted in the regime’s structural problems, which the CCP can’t solve, an expert says.

Members of a People's Liberation Army honor guard march in Tiananmen Square after the closing session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

News Analysis

The Chinese communist regime’s top political meetings, known as the “Two Sessions,” started on March 4 and are expected to last for a week.

The rubber-stamp National People’s Congress will endorse decisions already made by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which will signal the priorities of the regime for the coming year.

Prior to the meetings, the state media released messages indicating the regime’s areas of focus. Experts have said the Chinese regime is in political and economic crises and will not realize any promise it makes during the “Two Sessions.”

Economy

The CCP’s official media released some of CCP leader Xi Jinping’s remarks on the economy.

On March 2, the state media Xinhua News Agency published an article in which Xi claimed, “I have always supported private enterprises.”

The CCP’s periodical “Qiushi” journal on March 1 published Xi’s speech at the Central Economic Work Conference from December 2024. Xi said that the government must coordinate the “relationship between an effective market and an efficient government” to form an economic order that is both “to let the economy run freely” and “controllable.”

Yuan Hongbing, an Australia-based legal scholar, told The Epoch Times on March 2 that Xi’s claim that he has always supported private enterprises is a lie.

The Chinese regime has been implementing “the advancement of the country and the retreat of the private sector” policy for years to suppress the private sector.

Yuan said that Xi had just sent a stern warning to private entrepreneurs during his meeting with them last month. Xi told them that in difficult times, private enterprises must contribute more money and effort to invest more and form a cooperative system with the CCP’s state-owned enterprises in key areas, and warned that whoever passively resists or colludes with foreign powers will be punished by law, according to Yuan.

At a time when the Trump administration is launching powerful economic containment against the CCP and foreign capital is fleeing China, the CCP and Xi are forcing private enterprises to invest in and cooperate with the CCP’s tyrannical state-owned enterprises, Yuan said. This is once again ripping off private enterprises under the banner of implementing a market economy to help the CCP survive the current economic crisis.

Trump announced on Feb. 27 that following the 10 percent tariff increase on Chinese goods in early February, another 10 percent tariff would be imposed starting on March 4, bringing the increase to 20 percent. China’s three major stock markets, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, plummeted after the announcement.

The Chinese regime filed a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization over the tariff increase and suspended lumber and some agriculture imports from the United States in retaliation.

Xu Zhen, a senior professional in China’s capital market, told The Epoch Times that, judging by the CCP’s current measures to deal with Trump’s tariff increase, which will not be effective, the Chinese regime is in disarray.

He said that Xi is not unaware of the ills of the CCP’s system, but now he is calling on the bureaucrats to both “let the economy run freely” and “control it,” which is impossible.

Xu said that Xi’s recent remarks on the economy show that Xi’s political line of the party managing the economy has suffered a major setback, his authority has been severely challenged, and he has lost control of the middle and lower-level officials. “The CCP bureaucrats’ inaction is a soft resistance against Xi and to show their dissatisfaction with him,” he said. “Xi wants to boost the economy through domestic demand and let private enterprises save the CCP, but that is wishful thinking, and it is too late.”

Deserted villas in a suburb of Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province, on March 31, 2023 JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images

Political Security

Before the “Two Sessions,” the CCP suddenly released a newly revised “National Emergency Response Plan for Major Public Events” on Feb. 25, emphasizing social stability and strengthening public opinion guidance and central command. In addition to natural disasters, accidents, and public health incidents, the revised plan also targets “security incidents.”

Yeh Yao-Yuan, professor of political science and international studies at the University of St. Thomas, told The Epoch Times on March 2, that the introduction of this revised plan means that against the backdrop of China’s economic downturn, there is a possibility that some people will challenge the CCP’s Central Committee, so the authorities must obtain more intelligence in advance to prevent it. “To some extent, it also shows that the CCP’s top leaders, especially Xi Jinping, are pessimistic about the regime’s future political stability,” he said.

Yuan said that the purpose of the CCP’s putting out this plan now is to deal with sudden military mutinies, civil unrest, and various social crises. “Because they have already felt the danger of the crises.”

“The biggest crisis facing the CCP right now is actually its crisis and the crisis of Xi Jinping’s personal dictatorship merging into one,” Yuan said.

He said that the major political problems that Xi’s dictatorship is now facing comes from three directions: “Economic problems, which will trigger a huge political and social crisis of the CCP’s tyranny; almost all officials within the CCP are dissatisfied with Xi’s dictatorship, including some military officers; the United States strengthening its relations with Taiwan.”

Livelihood

The “Two Sessions” usually brings up certain issues related to people’s livelihood.

This year, Chen Songqi, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and an academic of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed lowering the legal age of marriage to 18 to increase the fertility population base. The age is now 22 for men and 20 for women. This proposal has sparked ridicule among Chinese internet users. Meanwhile, China’s unemployment rate has continued to rise as a record number of college graduates prepare to enter the job market in 2025.

The number of seniors is rising in China. A young couple born in the '80s are the sole caregivers of four aging parents. Getty Images

Yuan said that the most critical livelihood issue in China now is the aging population, which is difficult to change. “At the same time, due to the economic downturn, young people cannot afford to have families and are therefore unwilling to get married or have children. This is a structural problem that the CCP has no way to solve.”

In addition, he said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP forced the Chinese people to take Chinese-made vaccines, which have shown various side effects and might contribute to the current wave of respiratory infections in China.

“Faced with these truly critical issues concerning people’s livelihood, the CCP not only dares not confront them but also tries to cover up these crises by whitewashing the situation,” Yuan said.

“The CCP’s ‘Two Sessions’ cannot really solve any problems in people’s livelihood. They are not meetings to solve problems, but meetings to cover up problems,” he concluded.

Luo Ya contributed to this report.