Coronavirus: Beijing on war footing as National­ People’s Congress begins

China’s political elite gathers in its ‘wartime’ capital to unveil its way out of the COVID-19 economic crisis.

A People’s Liberation Army honour guard battalion marches outside the Forbidden City, near Tiananmen Square, before the National People’s Congress. Picture: Getty Images

Hong Kong is on edge, Australian resource companies are on high alert and Beijing’s security state is in place, as China’s political elite gathers in its “wartime” capital to unveil its way out of the COVID-19 economic crisis.

On Friday, China’s Premier Li Keqiang will reveal the annual economic growth target of the world’s second-biggest economy in his “Work Report” to the National­ People’s Congress, the centrepiece of the country’s most important political gathering, called the “Two Sessions”.

Mr Li will give his hours-long address in the Great Hall of the People, with the party’s general secretary and the country’s President, Xi Jinping, seated centrestage as leaders and China-exposed companies around the world listen for guidance on the highly centralised, emerging superpower’s plans for the year.

For all the jumpiness over customs­, the Work Report — and any details of further stimulus it might include — will likely be much more consequential for Australia’s iron ore giants BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.

“The (NPC) will send a clear signal on the level of economic stimulus in the coming months,” said Bo Zhuang, an economist at research group TS Lombard.

While a debate has raged within China about whether the country should abandon an economic growth target this year because of the extraordinary circumstances, most analysts think Mr Xi’s leadership team will maintain one.

“The absence of a GDP target will make people feel the economy is in real trouble,” said Zong Liang, chief researcher at Bank of China.

Mr Zong has forecast a full-year growth target of 2-3 per cent, well down on the 6 per cent the leadership team was reportedly planning to set before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Early indications suggest this year’s meeting will celebrate the country’s handling of the coronavirus, which was first detected in Wuhan late last year and has now killed almost 330,000 people.

This week the People’s Daily praised Mr Xi on its front page as the “People’s Leader”, for his leadership during the crisis.

Red Two Sessions banners are running on the top of state media papers and on Chinese internet portals, including Baidu, Tencent (whose billionaire boss Pony Ma is one of Guangdong’s NPC delegates) and the Hong Kong-based Phoenix.

In China’s special administrative region of Hong Kong, there is anxiety that this year’s meeting — the first held since Hong Kong’s anti-government protest movement broke out last June — could reveal a more interventionist ­approach from the central ­government.

The South China Morning Post reported this week that Mr Li would take a tougher stance on Hong Kong in his speech, citing unnamed sources.

Beijing’s city government is also under huge pressure as thousands of delegates have arrived from around the country. Its municipa­l officials have promised “not a single mishap would occur” during the seven-day event and stressed that the city remains in “wartime mode”.

Every level of the Chinese police state has been enlisted to the effort. When visiting the ­Fairmont Hotel on Thursday, The Australian encountered China’s elite army police, Beijing city cops with german shepherds, copious security guards and hosts of “community­ volunteers”, colloquially known as “Grandpa cops”. Plain-clothed secret police appeared to also be on standby.

Behind a security fence built at the hotel in the week before the meeting was a fleet of 15 numbered mini buses and two black Audis that will transport the delegates.

The public and foreign media are being encouraged to keep their distance from the political VIPs.