China's No. 2 has skipped a press conference that has long been a tradition during the "Two Sessions" annual gathering of the Chinese Communist Party's who's who that kicked off this week.
Premier Li Qiang's surprise move, coming as the world's second-largest economy grapples with a stubborn post-pandemic slowdown, sends the wrong signal to already skittish investors, some China watchers have said.
Li's absence marked the first time in over three decades a premier, traditionally tasked with steering economic policy, has not fielded questions during the Two Sessions. The meetings of China's top advisory body and rubber stamp legislature the National People's Congress (NPC) are highly scrutinized as bellwethers for China's state and spending priorities for the next few years.
The premier was drafting a government progress report, and this would be released to the public along with reports from the country's finance ministry and national development commission, local media reported Monday citing NPC spokesperson Lou Qinjian.
In lieu of a question-and-answer session with Li, press briefings with Chinese ministers would be added to accommodate local and foreign media, Lou said.
"One distinct possible interpretation I prefer is that Beijing may wish not to distract too much from the limelight of [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping, since it is exclusively a premier's event," Asia Society Policy senior fellow Guonan Ma told Newsweek when asked about the significance of Li's cancelation.
Yet, the move may not provide the right optics as the Chinese authorities seek to instill confidence in foreign financiers.
"It is just a lost opportunity for investors to get some insights on the thinking of the Chinese government," Victor Shih, director of the 21st Century China Center think tank, told Newsweek.
He said he believes Li's predecessor, the late Premier Li Keqiang, "used to take the opportunity of the press conference to assert some of his own personality and reveal some sensitive information about the economy."
This included Li's memorable remark in 2020 that some 600 million Chinese were still living on $140 or less per month—a comment that sparked hot debate in the country.
China's appeal as a sure bet for foreign investment has taken a hit amid slowing growth, concerns over intellectual property theft, and last year's revisions to an anti-espionage law that were followed by raids and arrests at the offices of international due diligence firms like Mintz Group and Bain & Co.
In February, China's foreign exchange regulator reported a 30-year low of $33 billion in direct investment liabilities in 2023, a measure of financial inflows connected to foreign-owned entities.
"Our view is that one should not invest in China," Goldman Sachs Investment Strategy Group chief Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Television.
Among the reasons she cited were China's heavily indebted housing market, declining demand for exports, dubious economic reports from the central government, and a lack of transparency on government policy.
Newsweek reached out to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a written request for comment.
The Two sessions are widely viewed as a barometer of trends in Beijing's opaque halls of power.
"People are looking for different things," Deng Yuwen, a former deputy editor of Chinese Communist Party newspaper the Study Times said, per the South China Morning Post.
The politically minded will be looking to gauge whether Xi's purge of high-ranking officials is ending, he said.
"Foreign investors will be looking for signs that Beijing has returned to a pro-development mode, including China's GDP target and development strategies," Deng added.
Premier Li announced at the opening of the NPC Tuesday that China would again pursue GDP growth of around 5 percent.
Beijing says it surpassed this threshold by 0.2 percent last year, though this figure has been challenged by some experts.
Update 3/6/24,7:15 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a comment from Guonan Ma.
Update 03/12/24, 1:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with a comment from Victor Shih.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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