Two Sessions
Political term in China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Two Sessions (Chinese: 两会) is the collective term for the annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress and of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which are typically both held every March at the Great Hall of the People in Xicheng, Beijing around the same dates.[1][2] The Two Sessions last for about ten days.[3]: 61–62
| Two Sessions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 两会 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 兩會 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | two sessions | ||||||||
| |||||||||
During the Two Sessions, the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) hear and discuss reports from the premier, the chief prosecutor, and the President and Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court.[3]: 61–62
During the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, the term for the Two Sessions in Chinese, lianghui, became a covert means of avoiding Internet censorship.[4][5][6] 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.[4]
