BEIJING – President Xi Jinping loomed larger than ever at this year’s Two Sessions, as cadres and officials rallied behind the Chinese leader’s latest modernisation campaign, which promises to transform the economy and make the country a tech superpower.

As the legislature on March 11 passed revisions to a law that will put the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the government, or the State Council, Mr Xi was exalted at every turn, in every meeting and every interview.

The annual meetings of the legislature and the country’s top advisory body, known as the Two Sessions, wrapped up on March 11 after eight days, the shortest duration outside the pandemic years.

Mr Xi was mentioned more times in this year’s government work report – delivered by the Premier at the opening of the legislature’s meeting on March 5 – than in any other year since he was chosen as the general secretary of the CPC in 2012.

Premier Li Qiang, in presenting his maiden work report this year after taking over from the late Li Keqiang, invoked Mr Xi’s name 16 times in less than an hour. By contrast, then Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned him just once in 2013, at Mr Xi’s first Two Sessions as the country’s paramount leader.

Over the past 11 years, Mr Xi’s name has appeared with growing frequency in the work report, the most important policy document setting out the main economic and social development targets for the year.

“We owe our achievements in 2023 to General Secretary Xi Jinping, who is at the helm charting the course, to the sound guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,” said Mr Li as he opened the annual session of the legislature, or National People’s Congress, on March 5.

Similarly, Mr Xi was mentioned a record 15 times in a political resolution adopted at the end of the annual gathering of the top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), on March 10. This compared with just twice in 2013.

The increasing emphasis on Mr Xi and also the Communist Party’s leadership becomes even more stark when seen against the diminishing authority of the State Council, especially after the surprise cancellation of the premier’s meet-the-press session and the amendments to the law that now defines the relationship between the government and the party.

The customary press conference, started in 1988 and held every year since 1993, was traditionally the highlight of the annual parliamentary sessions for domestic and foreign audiences, as the premier would directly address questions from the international media. However, it was abruptly scrapped this year.

It is likely that a press conference will still be held once every five years to introduce a new government that is appointed. In 2023, Mr Li and his new team of vice-premiers met the press for nearly an hour and a half on the final day of the Two Sessions.

On March 11, the Organic Law – which empowers the State Council and prescribes its operational scope – was also amended to make the government subservient to the Communist Party, requiring it to “resolutely uphold” the party’s leadership and implement its decisions.

It had not been revised since it was passed in 1982 when the Chinese leadership under Deng Xiaoping advocated the separation of party and government functions. There was no mention of the party at all in the original piece of legislation.

These changes follow a major overhaul of the bureaucracy in 2023 that empowered party apparatuses to make more decisions while the State Council executes them.

As the 5,000 or so lawmakers and delegates return to their stations, provinces and regions, they will hunker down to implement Mr Xi’s call to ramp up tech innovation and industrial upgrading under a new political slogan, “new quality productive forces”, that dominated this year’s Two Sessions.

The term, first mentioned by Mr Xi in September 2023, was documented in this year’s work report, with its development the country’s top task for the coming year.

“We have to carry forward the work of innovation,” said CPPCC member Zhang Hongchun, a physician who is on the committee for medicine and health, when asked what he took away from this year’s meetings.

Reforms to the education system will be under way to cultivate innovators, in order to realise the goal of reaching technological self-reliance and developing new economic growth drivers, said Education Minister Huai Jinpeng.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will also speed up the training of skilled workers.

China has prioritised “high-quality development” in a quest for self-sufficiency in recent years against increasing United States sanctions aimed at denying China its technology. It is unclear how this latest push for technological innovation differs from the earlier strategy, or if it is just old wine in a new bottle.

Associate Professor Alfred Wu from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy believes the ambiguity may be deliberate. “President Xi may want to keep some space to manoeuvre or to see who will try his best to implement his policy,” he said.