Two sessions; Talking up the economy’s bright prospects; US-China; "Pseudo-middle class trap"
Summary of today’s top items:
Two Sessions - Tuesday is opening day for the National People’s Congress, and we will get the draft government work report and the draft plan for national economic and social development in 2024. Lou Qingjian, official spokesperson for the NPC, announced at the Monday press conference that Premier Li Qiang will not give a press conference at the end of the NPC, as he did last year and as his predecessors have done for more than 30 years. There are lots of guesses as to why this practice is ending, mine is that this is just another step in the relative diminution of the Premier and his role under Xi. Premier Li has already taken a lower public profile than his predecessors, he did not go visit victims during the huge flooding last year, he did not inspect the efforts to help stranded travelers during the recent terrible weather during the Spring Festival migration, and this may just fit with avoiding any possibility of people thinking there is any sort of a…