The National People's Congress Work Report
How to read the PRC Premier's annual Government Work Report to the NPC — its constitutional basis, foreign-policy paragraphs, fiscal targets, and differential analysis across years.
Constitutional Status and Annual Cadence
The Government Work Report (政府工作报告, zhèngfǔ gōngzuò bàogào) is delivered by the Premier of the State Council to the plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) each March, pursuant to Article 92 of the PRC Constitution, which makes the State Council "responsible and accountable" to the NPC. The report is simultaneously a retrospective accounting of the prior year's administration, a quantitative target-setting document for the year ahead, and — for foreign-policy readers — a tightly drafted index of the leadership's prevailing line on sovereignty, development, and external relations. It is approved by NPC delegates on the closing day and published in authoritative Chinese on Xinhua and People's Daily, with an official English translation released by the State Council Information Office, typically within 48 hours.
Li Qiang delivered his first Work Report on 5 March 2024, succeeding Li Keqiang, who had delivered ten reports between 2013 and 2023. The 2024 report broke a three-decade precedent by cancelling the customary post-NPC premier's press conference, a procedural change announced by NPC spokesperson Lou Qinjian on 4 March 2024 and widely read as a further concentration of communicative authority in the CCP General Secretary.
Structure and the Foreign-Policy Sections
The report follows a stable architecture: (1) review of the past year's work, (2) overall requirements and major policy orientations, (3) numerical targets (GDP growth, CPI, urban employment, fiscal deficit, defense budget), and (4) a closing section on diplomacy, Hong Kong/Macao, Taiwan, and national defense. Foreign-policy analysts read the document non-linearly. Four passages reward close attention:
- The defense budget line. The 2024 report set defense spending at 1.665 trillion yuan, a 7.2% nominal increase — the same rate as 2023 and the highest sustained growth since 2019. The figure is announced in the budget report submitted alongside the Work Report by the Ministry of Finance.
- The Taiwan paragraph. Tracked year-on-year for additions and deletions. The 2022 report dropped the phrase "peaceful reunification" (和平统一); the 2024 report likewise omitted "peaceful," retaining "resolutely oppose Taiwan independence separatist activities and external interference" and "advance the cause of China's reunification."
- The diplomacy paragraph. Typically 200–300 Chinese characters, it ratifies the slogans approved at the prior Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference. The 2024 text reaffirmed "head-of-state diplomacy" (元首外交), the Global Development, Security, and Civilization Initiatives, and "a community with a shared future for mankind."
- The Hong Kong/Macao paragraph. Reads as a barometer of Article 23 implementation (the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance was enacted 23 March 2024, three weeks after the Work Report endorsed "fully and faithfully implementing 'one country, two systems'").
How to Read It Against Prior Years
The analytical value of the Work Report lies in differential reading. Maintain a rolling textual diff against the prior three years. Additions, deletions, and reordering of formulations (提法, tífǎ) are the signal; the prose itself is deliberately formulaic. The disappearance of "peaceful reunification" in 2022 was not rhetorical drift but a coordinated shift visible across the Work Report, the 20th Party Congress political report (October 2022), and the August 2022 Taiwan White Paper. A formulation appearing in the Work Report has been cleared by the Politburo Standing Committee and constitutes binding guidance for ministries through the following fiscal year.