China is canceling the prime minister’s annual news conference in a surprising move

China’s prime minister will no longer hold a press conference after the country’s annual legislative meeting, Beijing announced on Monday. That ended a thirty-year practice that provided an extremely rare opportunity for journalists to interact with top Chinese leaders.

The decision, announced a day before the opening of this year’s legislative conclave, was for many observers a sign of the increasing opacity of information in the country, even as the government has declared its commitment to transparency and promoting a friendly business environment.

It also reinforced how China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has consolidated power and relegated all other officials, including the prime minister — the country’s No. 2, who oversees ministries — to much less visible roles. It is widely believed that China’s current Prime Minister Li Qiang was elevated to the role last year because of his loyalty to Mr Xi.

“Barring special circumstances, there will also be no prime minister’s press conference after this year’s legislative session in the coming years,” Lou Qinjian, a spokesman for the legislature, said at a press conference on this year’s legislative session.

Mr. Lou provided few details about the decision, other than to say there would be an increased number of question-and-answer sessions with lower-level officials instead.

On Chinese social media, censors closely monitored discussion of the change. The comment sections of many official news reports about the announcement were closed. On the popular platform Weibo, a search for the hashtag “There will be no Prime Minister’s press conference after the closing ceremony of this year’s legislative session” – the language used in the official reports – returned an error message: “Sorry, this content cannot be displayed.”

Since 1993, China’s premier has hosted a press conference at the end of the annual legislative meeting, known as the National People’s Congress. While the answers rarely deviated from the official line, it was a rare opportunity for journalists – including foreign ones – to ask questions directly from top leaders.

At previous conferences, reporters have asked prime ministers about issues ranging from the price of vegetables in Beijing to alleged human rights abuses and the possibility of direct elections. In 2012, then-Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s press conference lasted three hours; journalists asked about self-immolations by Tibetans protesting Chinese rule and a political scandal engulfing Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary of a major city.

The next day, Mr. Bo was fired from his position and later charged and convicted of bribery.

Chinese officials had held up the exchanges as evidence of the country’s increasing openness.

“There are always sensitive and difficult questions from journalists, and the Prime Minister always answers them with confidence, wisdom and humour,” said one Article from 2018 posted on social media by an official account of the legislature. The Prime Minister’s press conference, the report continued, “has become an important window for observing China’s openness and transparency. This allows countries around the world to feel the pulse of China’s contemporary reforms and opening-up, and its democratic political development.”

But since Mr Xi came to power in 2012, he has tightened controls on the press and speech. Even routine data on the economy – the heart of the prime minister’s portfolio – has become increasingly limited, especially as Chinese growth has weakened in recent years.

The Prime Minister’s press conference has also increasingly become a script. Reporters’ questions have been vetted well in advance, but the space to ask about sensitive issues has shrunk.

And the role of the prime minister himself has been greatly reduced. The first prime minister to serve under Xi, Li Keqiang, was seen as relatively liberal and favored giving markets a greater role in the economy. In 2020, Mr Li made headlines when he used unusually stark language to describe the plight of poor Chinese, at a time when China was promoting its success in eradicating poverty. said at his annual press conference that year he said there were still 600 million people whose income “wasn’t even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city.”

But during Mr. Li’s decade as prime minister, his influence steadily declined as Mr. Xi promoted aides seen as more loyal to himself and emphasized security and ideology over economic growth. The current Prime Minister, Li Qiang, a former aide to Mr Xi, replaced Li Keqiang in March last year. Li Keqiang died of a heart attack in October.

At Li Qiang’s post-congress press conference last year, his first – and as it turned out, probably his last – in this role, he expressed support for the private sector amid concerns about China’s economic recovery after three years of coronavirus restrictions. But he nodded often to Mr Xi and offered some details.

And in the year since, Mr. Li has largely held himself to a lower standard than his predecessors. He has been present fewer international meetingsand has flown on chartered flights, according to state media reports – and not on the special planes reserved for top officials and typically used by previous prime ministers.

Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the cancellation of the news conference would further damage the prime minister’s visibility. It “helps entrench the idea that there is no alternative to Xi’s leadership,” Thomas said.

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting, and Li you And Siyi Zhao research contributed.