First session of the 14th National People's Congress

The first session of the 14th National People's Congress was held in March 2023 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. The session opened on 5 March and concluded on 13 March. Major state positions of China were elected in this session.

Preparation

On 30 December 2022, the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress announced that the 14th NPC would open its first session on 5 March.
On 4 March 2023, the [Council of Chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress|Standing Committee of the National People's Congress|Council of Chairpersons] of the Standing Committee of the 13th NPC held its 136th meeting. The meeting submitted the draft list of the presidium and secretary-general of the upcoming NPC session, along with its the draft agenda. The same day, the preparatory meeting of the first session of the 14th NPC was held, presided by NPC Standing Committee chairman Li Zhanshu. The meeting elected the presidium and secretary-general, and adopted the submitted agenda. Zhao Leji was elected as the chairman of the presidium.

The session

The first session opened on 5 March, presided by Presidium Chairman Zhao Leji. Premier Li Keqiang gave a work report during the meeting. Delegates voted to appoint the chairperson, vice chairpersons and members of two special committees; the Constitution and Law Committee and the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.
On 7 March, the second plenary meeting of the first session was held. During the meeting, NPCSC chairman Li Zhanshu, Supreme People's Court president Zhou Qiang, and Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Zhang Jun gave work reports. State Councilor Xiao Jie gave an explanatory speech about reforming State Council institutions.
On 10 March, the third plenary meeting was held. During the meeting, the NPC voted to elect the president and vice president of the PRC, chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission, chairman of the NPCSC as well as other state leaders. During this meeting, Xi was unanimously elected for an unprecedented third term as president. The NPC also voted on the plan to reform State Council institutions. On 11 March, the fourth plenary meeting was held. The premier, vice chairpersons of the CMC, director of the National Supervisory Commission, president of the Supreme People's Court, Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate as well as members of the NPCSC. The fifth plenary meeting, held on 12 March, elected the new State Council, including vice premiers, state councilors, secretary-general and ministers.
On 13 March, the closing meeting of the first session was held; President Xi Jinping delivered a speech.

Economic targets and budget

The following economic targets were set by the government work report submitted to the NPC:

	2023 target	Result
GDP growth	~5%	5.2%
CPI	~3%	0.2%
New urban jobs	12 million	12.44 million
Deficit-to-GDP ratio	3%

The NPC session also adopted the following central government budget:

Government budget

In trillions of renminbi:

	Planned	% change	Actual
Central general public budget revenue	10.017	5.6	9.957
Central general public budget expenditure	13.902	4.7	14.117
Central government expenditure	3.789	6.5	3.822
Transfer to local governments	10.063	3.6	10.295
Local general public budget revenue	11.716	7.6	11.722
Local general public budget expenditure	23.674	5.2	23.635
National general public budget revenue	21.730	6.7	21.678
National general public budget expenditure	27.513	5.6	28.243

Source:

Central public budget expenditure

In billions of renminbi:

	Planned	% change	Actual
General public services	156.8	–0.7	151.6
Diplomacy	54.8	12.2	57.0
National defense	1,553.7	7.2	1,553.7
Public security	208.9	6.4	224.6
Education	155.4	2	157.1
Science and technology	328.0	2	337.1
Culture, tourism, sports and media	17.3	–0.3	17.3
Social security and employment	99.2	19	105.4
Health	22.7	2.9	29.7
Energy conservation and environmental protection	16.2	–8.6	19.6
Urban and rural communities	0.3	5.3	0.3
Agriculture, forestry and water	21.9	–12.1	25.7
Transportation	62.0	–2.4	77.3
Resource exploration and industrial information	36.9	5.2	40.4
Commercial services	3.8	11.8	3.0
Financial	40.5	–4.2	52.5
Natural resources, oceanography and meteorology	25.5	–1.6	28.6
Housing security	62.2	0.9	62.
Stockpiling grain, edible oils, and other materials	132.8	13.6	130.1
Debt interest payments	723.0	10.8	694.6
Total	3,789.0	6.5	3,821.9

Source:

National general public budget expenditure

In billions of renminbi:

	Spending	% change
Education	4,124.2	2.0
Science and technology	1,082.3	7.9
Culture, tourism, sports and media	396	1.2
Social security and employment	3,988.3	8.9
Health and medical	2,239.3	–0.6
Energy conservation and environmental protection	563.3	4.1
Urban and rural community	205.3	5.7
Agriculture, forestry and water	2,396.7	6.5
Transportation	1,220.6	1.3
Debt interest payments	1,182.9	4.2
Total	27,457.4	5.4

Source: