- by A Carruthers
- The Guardian
- Issue #2137
Photo: triin – flickr.com (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
What is China’s “Two Sessions,” or “Lianghui”?
China has a socialist people’s congressional system. Liang (two) Hui (sessions) is the meeting of the two most important political bodies – the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The latter, the CPPCC, is what socialists call a “United Front.” It is not dominated by the Communist Party. In fact the Communist Party of China (CPC) plays a minority role in this organ. Of the 2169 seats in its largest body, the CPPCC National Committee, the majority are filled by minor parties, democratic organisations, independents, farmers, People’s organisations (like the All-China Women’s Federation, All-China Federation of Trade Unions, China Disabled Persons’ Federation, and so on).
In other words, Lianghui, the ten-day conference that has just concluded, is the biggest annual event in Chinese democracy. Unlike Western elections, which happen every 3 to 4 years, and are hyperpoliticised, money-fuelled cycles of misinformation, disguise, and hidden power-play, Lianghui happens every single year, exposing the workings of government and opening policymaking wide out to the people.
It is all about concrete actions and proposals, of which thousands are put forward, and many passed into law.
The following are five takeaways that stood out to me from the Work Report and sessions of Lianghui 2025:
1. Women’s Rights
Women’s rights is front and centre this year. Zhang Jingjing from a Ceramics university in China and who is a delegate, said the following to on-site media: “we women still need to keep strengthening our expertise – one needs to be strong to forge iron – proving ourselves to earn equal opportunities. Equally important, we must break the culture of silence. Rights aren’t given freely, they’re claimed. If something’s unfair, call it out. And let talent shine, loud and clear.”
Using the CPPCC as a forum to call out unfair discrimination and break the culture of silence, activist women like Zhang Jingjing are given a voice in the Congress to protest against ongoing inequalities, as well as make concrete proposals and pass proposals on women’s equality into law.
2. Disability
This year’s Government Work Report, delivered by Premier Li Qiang, was published in Braille for the visually impaired, and given special prominence at a meeting attended by political advisors from the welfare and social security sector.
Events marking International Women’s Day, celebrated this year during Lianghui, put on by the All-China Women’s Federation, placed special attention on how women can overcome physical disabilities to empower others. The Government Work Report also placed emphasis on workers’ rights for people with disability: “More help will be give to those finding it hard to obtain work because of age or disability,” the Report noted.
3. Minorities
Ethnic minority groups have a special presence at Lianghui each year. Their visibility is heightened by the fact that they attend meetings and sessions in their traditional costume. 55 ethnic minority groups are represented in the NPC, whether Xinjiang or Yi Indigenous people or many others – every ethnicity is represented.
One national political advisor Yang Yuni, a Hani woman, came dressed in an intricately embroidered decoration sewn by her grandmother. Her proposal focussed on “integrating intangible cultural heritage into primary and secondary school education.”
This is something often misunderstood in the West. It is often assumed that China is all one ethnicity, meaning Han. It is not. In fact many of these groups have lived side by side in peace as part of China’s larger socialist society, where they could very well have been at war if external interference had come into play (as we have seen in Yugoslavia, Myanmar, and countless other places).
No matter how small the ethnic group is, the Congress operates on a minority preferential system – even if you are a tiny ethnic group, you will have at least one representative. This preferential system dates back to the very beginning of revolutionary China.
4. New Productive Forces
The terminology of Marx, Engels, and Lenin is always at hand in China’s biggest democracy event. This year “new productive forces” is the buzzword, which happens to be a term from Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy. Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin used it and thought deeply about the idea across their lives and works.
AI and robotics is being considered to be a “productive force,” but the discussions are very targeted: the question is how will this improve people’s wellbeing, and lift up the lives of the masses?
China has also announced, at Lianghui 2025, that it will shortly be mass-producing flying taxis – this too could be considered part of this new drive to develop quality new productive forces.
5. Democratic Transparency and Accountability
In some sessions of the Two Sessions the President, Xi Jinping, sits to vote not in front of the delegates, but among the peoples’ delegates. President Xi, it is worth recalling, makes a meagre salary of about $30,000 AUD equivalent per year. In a tradition that goes back to Mao Zedong and the Chinese revolution, the leader never stands above the people, but must be at the level of the people, and know the people well. Unlike Western leaders, who are buttressed by big Capital and lord it over the ordinary citizens, in China the leader is always among the people.
For those who follow it closely and seek to understand it, China’s socialist democratic system is clearly superior to that of the Western “liberal democracy.” Lianghui gives us hope for democracy in a world of growing corporate autocracy and authoritarianism, especially in Western countries like the United States. Unfortunately, the useful idiots of Western media will continue to hide the fact that Chinese democracy is growing in strength as Western capitalist liberalism falls apart.
Lianghui 2025 shows that China has matured as a socialist country, and is keeping the beacon of economic democracy, accountability and government transparency alive in the 21st century.
