China’s Li Qiang will become the first premier in three decades to not hold a press briefing at the annual parliamentary meetings, removing a rare platform for investors to learn more about the nation’s policy direction as President Xi Jinping consolidates control over the world’s second-largest economy.
The country’s No. 2 official won’t take questions at the close of the National People’s Congress for the rest of its five-year term apart from in "special circumstances,” official spokesperson Lou Qinjian said at a Monday briefing in Beijing. This cohort of lawmakers will gather each year until 2027.
The annual news conference by the sitting premier has been in place since at least 1993. Scrapping one of the few events in China’s political calendar where a top leader can interact with the public comes at a moment when the ruling Communist Party is facing scrutiny over restricting access to information.