China’s parliament to meet after virus delay

BEIJING: China's parliament will hold its annual session next month after being delayed because of the coronavirus, state media said Wednesday, signalling the communist leadership´s growing confidence in taming the epidemic.

Beijing announced in February that it would put off the annual National People´s Congress (NPC) for the first time since the Cultural Revolution as the country battled the coronavirus outbreak, which has since become a pandemic. The rescheduled session on May 22 will highlight confidence by the leadership that China has largely brought its outbreak under control.

Top Communist Party leaders including President Xi Jinping attend each year´s gathering with thousands of delegates from across the country, to rubber-stamp bills, budgets and personnel moves.

According to a statement cited by official news agency Xinhua from the NPC Standing Committee -- the body that oversees the legislative session -- the epidemic in China is "improving steadily" and "normal economic and social life is gradually resuming".

This means the "conditions for convening the NPC annual session... are ready," the statement said. China's capital on Wednesday lowered its emergency alert from the highest level and lifted a strict quarantine requirement for domestic travellers from "low-risk" areas, which it had kept in place long after many other regions in the country eased travel restrictions.