Thousands of Chinese leaders, lawmakers, and business leaders are gathering in Beijing this week for China’s biggest political meetings of the year.

The meetings, which will bring together top party officials, bureaucrats, military leaders and delegates, business heads, academics and others, are watched closely for signs of the Chinese government’s priorities for the year ahead. The gathering is also used to pass instructions down to local officials and party cadres across China.

Amid ongoing deflationary pressures and a looming trade war with the United States, analysts say this year’s meetings, officially called the “Two Sessions,” will focus on boosting domestic demand and cultivating high-tech innovation.

“In the face of geopolitical uncertainties, especially the potential trade war between the U.S. and China, the Chinese leadership will try to pursue economic reassurance by letting the outside world know that the Chinese economy remains stable,” said Wen-ti Sung, a Taipei-based political scientist for the Australian National University, or ANU.

Despite these attempts, Jacob Gunter, lead economic analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, said the NPC is unlikely to introduce policies that will boost consumption “in sufficient ways” due to the economic challenges the country is facing.

What are the Two Sessions?

The “Two Sessions” or “lianghui” as they are called in Mandarin, are the annual meetings of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC, and China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, or NPC.

The meetings typically kick off with the CPPCC meeting on Tuesday and are followed by the NPC gathering on Wednesday.

The CPPCC, which has more than 2,000 members, is tasked to provide recommendations on a wide range of issues, including the economy, education, and social welfare. The body typically puts out proposals but doesn’t have the power to make laws.

The NPC, with around 3,000 members, is tasked with passing legislation, electing national leaders, and approving government budgets and national development plans.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual meetings used to last around two weeks, but in recent years, the meetings have been shortened. This year, the CPPCC meetings will run from March 4 to March 10 and the NPC meetings from March 5 to March 11.

Who will attend the meetings?

This year’s two sessions will feature a diverse line-up of participants, from top Chinese leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, to provincial delegates and industry leaders.

Unlike previous years, leaders from tech giants, including Tencent chairman Tony Ma and Baidu CEO Robin Li, were missing from the participants’ list. Instead, leaders of emerging tech companies, such as electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng and Chinese artificial intelligence chipmaker Cambricon Technologies chairman Chen Tianshi, will participate in the meetings, a sign analysts say of Beijing’s determination to pour more resources into emerging sectors.

According to state media, more than 3,000 journalists from Chinese and foreign media outlets are expected to cover the important meetings from Beijing. As China has tightened control over foreign journalists’ visas since 2020, many foreign correspondents, especially those working for American media outlets, can only secure short-term visas to cover the meetings, VOA has learned.

Key events during the Two Sessions

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will kick off the NPC sessions by delivering the government work report on Wednesday, during which he is expected to reveal China’s economic growth target, government budget including defense spending, and key economic policy directives for 2025.

Li’s address is likely to touch on some foreign policy issues but for indicators on U.S.-China relations and Beijing’s thoughts on efforts to end the war in Ukraine, many will be looking to the press conference that Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to hold on Friday.

With a potential U.S.-China trade war looming in the background, analysts think China will set the 2025 economic growth target at 5%, reflecting the Chinese government’s attempt to maintain stability while seeking to facilitate progress.

Fang Tsung-yen, an assistant research fellow at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told VOA that since the stimulus measures that China rolled out last September only generated limited effects, it remains to be seen whether Beijing will introduce more fiscal measures to boost domestic demand during the Two Sessions.

In addition to key economic measures, the Chinese government is also expected to roll out measures aimed at channeling more state resources into key sectors, such as AI and semiconductors, while enhancing confidence among domestic and foreign investors.

In light of the dramatic changes in U.S. foreign policy since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, some experts say China will try to present itself as a “pro status-quo power” during the annual meetings.

“As the American leadership abdicates its role globally, China might see an opportunity to step up and show it can act more responsibly on global issues,” Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago, told VOA by phone.

VOA Mandarin’s Chih-wei Chuang contributed to this report.