Economic Observer Reporters Cover the NPC and CPPCC

Extracted from the EO's "Two Meetings" Special Feature
Original Chinese article posted on March 2, 2010
Original: [Chinese]

This year The Economic Observer will send four reporters to cover China's "Two Sessions" or 两会 (liǎnghuì) in Chinese - the annual meetings of the full sessions of both the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which get under way this week.

The two journalists who will be interviewing representatives and keeping track of all the proposals being made at the CPPCC which opened in Beijing today are:

Zhang Xiaohui
Zhang reports for the Economic Observer's News Department and is based in Chongqing. He joined the EO in 2006 and began by reporting for the East China Bureau of the newspaer. He's covered major stories such as the Shanghai social security funds scandal which brought down former politburo member and the party head of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu. In addition to many other stories, Zhang also reported on the serious case of water pollution that affected residents' drinking water supply in Jiangsu's Wuxi and Leiyang in mid-2007 and also a scandal involving the production of fake medicine in Anhui's Fuyang.
In September 2007, he was reassigned to the paper's Southwest China bureau to cover the developement of the reforms that are reshaping Chengdu and Chongqing. Since arriving there, Zhang has written reports on local government, financial institutions and listed companies. In May 2008 he contributed a series of  reports about the devastating Sichuan earthquake.

Sun Jianfang
Sun is a senior journalist for the Economic Observer's News Department. Sun joined the EO into 2002. During the past few years, Sun has written many influential reports with a focus on China's macroeconomy, securities market and property market. Sun has also  co-written a book titled as Heroes of Private Fund  《私募英雄》in 2008. 

Aside from Zhang and Sun, another two EO journalists will be providing constant reports from the National People's Congress (NPC):

Huang Liming
Huang is a senior journalist for the Economic Observer. Born in the 1980s, Huang graduated with a degree in journalism from Nanchang University in 2003. After graduation, he worked as an intern for the EO for half a year before landing a position with the newly-established Beijing News. Huang returned to the EO in July 2005, and his recent reports have focused on keeping track of listed companies and covering China's securities market.

Liu Weixun
Liu is also a senior journalist with Economic Observer. After graduating from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Liu Weixun worked as a journalist and editor for International Aviation, a magazine under the administration of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. He joined the EO team in 2004, writing for the the Corporation section of the newspaper and with a focus on developments in the communications and energy fields.

Earlier this week, Zhang Xiaohui and Sun Jianfang put together the following list of the major issues that are likely to emerge at the "two meetings" over the coming two weeks.

The list is based on remarks made by He Shaoren, the deputy head of the news office for the standing committee of the NPC in the lead up to the opening of the two sessions.

1. Strengthening and improving macro-level adjustment - maintaining the continuity and stability of China's macroeconomic policies

2. Shifting the development model and adjusting the structure of the Chinese economy - moving ahead with plans to coordinate the development of regional economies

3. Expanding domestic demand - strengthen the ability of consumption to contribute to economic growth

4. Promoting technological innovation

5. Promoting energy saving and the reduction of emissions - developing a green and low-carbon economy

6. Laying a firm foundation for solving issues related to the welfare of agricultural workers - promoting the continuous rise of rural  income

7. In relation to the problem of income distribution, increasing the amount of effort applied to adjusting income distribution among the Chinese people - solving the exessive income gap problem

8. Addressing the problem of employment and reemployment

9. Improving the quality of education and promoting the balanced development of education in urban and rural areas

10. Reforming the medical and health system and addressing the problems raised by major public health emergencies

11. Improving the social security system and addressing the difficulties of low-income earners

12. Speeding up the construction of government subsidized and low-cost housing

13. Addressing current problems with production safety, social order and stability, judicial fairness and corruption.

Links and Sources
Economic Observer: "Two Meetings" Special Feature (Chinese)