Reading the Government Work Report
How to read the Premier's annual Government Work Report — its constitutional basis, structure, and the foreign-policy signals embedded in domestic targets and diplomacy paragraphs.
The Document and Its Constitutional Basis
The Government Work Report (政府工作报告, zhèngfǔ gōngzuò bàogào) is delivered annually by the Premier of the State Council to the plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC), typically on the morning of 5 March. The obligation derives from Article 92 of the 1982 Constitution, which makes the State Council "responsible to and reports on its work to the National People's Congress." Following deliberation by NPC delegates and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — the so-called "Two Sessions" (两会) — the report is formally adopted by NPC resolution and becomes the operative work program for all ministries, provinces, and centrally administered state-owned enterprises for the calendar year.
Since Li Keqiang's first report in March 2014, the document has settled into a stable architecture: (1) a review of the prior year's work, (2) the general requirements and major targets for the current year, and (3) policy recommendations organized by sector. Li Qiang, who succeeded Li Keqiang in March 2023, has preserved this template. The 2024 report, delivered on 5 March 2024, ran approximately 17,000 Chinese characters; the 2025 report, delivered on 5 March 2025, was the first full-year program of Li Qiang's premiership following the conclusion of the post-pandemic transition.
Distinguishing the Report from Party Documents
The Government Work Report is a state document, not a Party document, and this distinction governs how analysts must read it. Strategic direction is set first by the Central Committee — through the Five-Year Plan recommendations (建议), the annual Central Economic Work Conference communiqué (typically issued in mid-December), and the political reports of Party Congresses (most recently the 20th Party Congress of October 2022). The Government Work Report implements and operationalizes those decisions; it does not originate them. Where the 20th Party Congress report introduced "Chinese-style modernization" (中国式现代化) and "new quality productive forces" (新质生产力 — the latter coined by Xi Jinping in September 2023), the Government Work Report converts these formulations into specific GDP growth targets, fiscal deficit ratios, urban employment quotas, and central budget line items.
The headline numbers therefore carry binding signaling weight. The 2024 report set GDP growth "around 5 percent," CPI growth "around 3 percent," urban surveyed unemployment "around 5.5 percent," and the deficit-to-GDP ratio at 3.0 percent, alongside RMB 1 trillion in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds — the first such issuance since 2020 and only the fourth in PRC history (1998, 2007, 2020, 2024). The 2025 report retained the "around 5 percent" GDP target and raised the deficit ratio to 4.0 percent, the highest on record, signaling fiscal expansion in response to deflationary pressure and the second Trump administration's tariff posture.
What to Track Across Years
Professional readers track the report by delta rather than by absolute content. The Xinhua-published comparison tables (对照表) circulating each March list every paragraph from the prior year alongside the current year's equivalent, with additions and deletions marked. Key items to monitor: the exact phrasing on Taiwan (whether "peaceful reunification" precedes or omits qualifiers, whether "resolutely oppose Taiwan independence separatist activities" appears verbatim), the treatment of "opening-up" versus "self-reliance," the order in which the property sector, local government debt, and small and medium financial institutions are listed among financial risks, and the presence or absence of named foreign partners in the diplomacy section.