The National People's Congress came late this year, disrupted, like almost everything in 2020, by the global pandemic that originated just south of the capital. Normally, it's a pantomime, a theatrical whimsy designed to give the impression of a country dedicated to consultation with a partial salute to democracy. In reality, the decisions are made long before the annual March assembly that serves as nothing more than a rubber stamp. While on paper it is China's top legislative body, Australians usually pay scant regard to the annual gabfest. Each year for decades the Middle Kingdom's economic forecasters have had an ... (full story)