No comment: uneasy silence as China’s top political advisory body meets
Delegates arrive without their phones – and no one wants to speak to the media
No phones, no breaks and no comment – China’s top political advisers and lawmakers began what is arguably the most important parliamentary sessions in years on Saturday in stony silence.
A week after the ruling Communist Party announced a controversial plan to remove the limit on the president’s term, sparking fears of a return to strongman politics, Beijing gathered its policy advisers for the two-week annual meetings as thick smog blanketed the capital.
By the time members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference started to pour into the crowded square in front of the imposing Great Hall of the People, two lines of guards had already cleared a wide passage for them to pass through – blocking off the media throng behind them.
The square has for years been a key venue for reporters to doorstep delegates before they entered the Great Hall, and guards have seldom intervened in the past.
When asked why they were breaking with tradition, a guard said: “This is a new year, and we have new rules.”
