Two Sessions

The Two Sessions refer to the annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which are held at the same administrative level and around the same time. Meetings that do not belong to the same administrative region, are not at the same level, or are not held around the same time are not called the Two Sessions. The National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference usually convene around the same time in early March each year, and are therefore often referred to together as the Two Sessions. The meetings of the local people's congresses at all levels and the local committees of the CPPCC are usually held around the same time at the beginning of each year, hence they are often referred to together as the local two sessions. The local two sessions is a general term for all local "two sessions", not referring to any one specific place. The local people's congresses of China divided into: • Provincial, autonomous region, and municipal committees; • Autonomous prefectures, cities with districts, counties, autonomous counties, cities without districts, and municipal district committees. "Local people's congresses and political consultative conferences" can only exist in the following administrative divisions: • Provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government; • Autonomous prefectures and cities with districts; • Counties, autonomous counties, cities without districts, and municipal districts. In townships, ethnic townships, and towns, only the People's Congress exists, but there are no township, ethnic township, or town committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Therefore, there is no "Two Sessions" in townships, ethnic townships, and towns. For the "local two sessions," the term "two sessions" also refers to the People's Congress and the CPPCC sessions held at the same administrative level and roughly concurrently. For example, the People's Congress session and the local CPPCC session at the same administrative level are collectively referred to as the "local two sessions." Similarly, "Shanghai two sessions" refers to the "[number]th session of the [number]th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress" and the " [number]th session of the [number]th Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference," both held roughly concurrently. Likewise, "Shaanxi two sessions" refers to the "[number]th session of the [number] th Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress" and the "[number]th session of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference," both held roughly concurrently. == History ==

On 21 September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opened, and the conference elected the members of the 1st National Committee of the CPPCC. In September 1954, the first session of the 1st National People's Congress (NPC) was held. On 25 December 1954, the first session of the 2nd National Committee of the CPPCC adopted the Charter of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1959, the first session of the 3rd National Committee of the CPPCC was held simultaneously with the first session of the 2nd National People's Congress (NPC), marking the first time that the NPC and the CPPCC were held simultaneously. The same was true in 1964. During the Cultural Revolution, they were no longer held simultaneously. In 1978, the first session of the 5th NPC and the first session of the 5th CPPCC were held simultaneously, thus making the number of sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC consistent. The timing of the meetings of the local people's congresses at all levels and the meetings of the local committees of the CPPCC at the same level in the same administrative region has also been adjusted, and the situation varies from place to place. Moreover, since the local CPPCCs were established and started to hold meetings in the early 1949 to 1950s, while the local people's congresses were established and started to hold meetings after the promulgation and implementation of the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1954, and the situation of the change of the people's congresses and CPPCCs in various places during the Cultural Revolution was different, the number of terms of the local people's congresses and CPPCCs is not necessarily the same. Moreover, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference must establish committees only in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government; while in autonomous prefectures, cities with districts, counties, autonomous counties, cities without districts and municipal districts, it is only stipulated that committees can be established, on the premise of "wherever there are conditions", so these administrative regions may not establish CPPCCs. Some of these administrative regions started to establish CPPCCs very late, so their number of terms is even less likely to be the same as that of the people's congresses at the same level. The 2026 Two Sessions took place from March 4 to March 12 and focused on economic development. == Shared services ==

News service The news preparation work for the annual "Two Sessions" usually begins very early. The news reporting group of the "Two Sessions" is responsible for the news reporting work of the NPC and the CPPCC. It and the general affairs group of the conference are the earliest organizations to start the preparation work for the conference. The head of the news reporting team for the NPC and the CPPCC is the proposed spokesperson for the NPC. Other responsible persons usually include one deputy secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the NPC and one deputy secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, the director of the News Bureau of the General Office of the NPC Standing Committee and the Director of the News Bureau of the General Office of the CPPCC National Committee, as well as the heads of the CCP Publicity Department, the State Council Information Office, the National Radio and Television Administration, the ''People's Daily'', Xinhua News Agency, and other units. Including the heads of news organizations in the news reporting team can give a general understanding of the issues that news organizations are concerned about, so "there are basically no issues that suddenly emerge". Service and reception Since a large number of NPC deputies and CPPCC members will be gathered during the Two Sessions, the service and reception work for them has become the focus of the relevant government departments. The service and reception work includes accommodation, catering, transportation, security and other work. Among them, the service and reception work for the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is the most arduous, and is jointly undertaken by the relevant departments of the central government and Beijing. The Two Sessions period is generally a critical time for the security work of the central government and local governments. Taking the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (NPC and CPPCC) as an example, on the eve of the 2009 NPC and CPPCC sessions in Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau stated that the number of auxiliary police security personnel for the NPC and CPPCC sessions, composed of community patrol members, security guards, etc., had reached 600,000. On the eve of the 2010 NPC and CPPCC sessions in Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau stated that 700,000 community residents in Beijing participated in the security work for the NPC and CPPCC sessions. == Other uses of the term ==

During the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, the term for the Two Sessions in Chinese, lianghui, became a covert means of avoiding Internet censorship. When PRC censors attempted to limit news of the Arab Spring by disabling internet searches for Chinese words such as "Egypt," "Tunisia," and "jasmine", protest organizers urged bloggers and activists to call planned protests lianghui. If the government were to censor this dissenters' circumlocution, it would effectively block internet news about the governmental NPC and CPPCC meetings. == See also ==