China, on Monday said it would postpone the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus outbreak, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The 2020 session was scheduled for March 5. No new date has yet been set for the meeting of the country’s parliamentary body, which typically lasts 10 days, due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
The two meetings, when the NPC and the National Committee of the advisory Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference hold their annual plenary sessions, is considered the biggest political event of the year in China.
Nominally the highest organ of state power in China, the NPC is typically regarded as a “rubber-stamp parliament” since it rarely rejects government Bills and has never failed to approve a work report by the government.
