🧵PSA on China's announcement of stimulus measures on Friday.

In our experience, only 2 things are certain:

1️⃣ State media will publicize details of the stimulus package before the day ends. But the specific timing is unclear.

1/ For reference, Xinhua publicized details of last October's special treasury bonds shortly before 8 pm local time, and posted the full text of the NPC Standing Committee's resolution ~30 min later (though the resolution itself typically lacks details).

2/

So there have been reports of China "proposing" new legislation to "protect" / "surveil" overseas Chinese, first from Chinese state media and then from others.

Who exactly did what? A quick thread: The "proposal" came in a recent report the State Council submitted to the NPC Standing Committee on "work relating to overseas Chinese affairs in the New Era" 侨务工作. Here's the relevant passage: npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202…

THREAD: How long does it take #China's National People's Congress to pass a law? How many times will the NPC review [insert bill of your choice]? And when to expect the bill's next reading?

If you've ever wondered about these questions, we have some answers for your in this 🧵: We collected & analyzed these legislative data on each of the 110 bills passed by the 13th National People's Congress (2018–2023): the # times a bill was reviewed, the overall length of legislative review, and the time between consecutive reviews.

npcobserver.com/2023/05/01/chi…

For those looking for some weekend reading, here are the full, text-searchable Chinese (72-page) and English (63-page) versions of Xi Jinping's 20th Party Congress report:

Chinese: drive.google.com/file/d/1Ajxdg4…

English: drive.google.com/file/d/11cnSr-… It was @ByChunHan who kindly shared the files with us — we will only take credit for running OCR on and re-uploading them!

China's National People's Congress (NPC) is considering a draft plan for allocating the seats in the next (14th) NPC. The draft is available here courtesy of @ZichenWanghere:

https://twitter.com/ZichenWanghere/status/1500068965380362245?s=20&t=i5LxLhJDu_Ht3aeVz_nwfw

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Here is a short thread 🧵 looking at the key provisions: 1. The total # of seats is capped (by statute) at 3000.

2a. Like the 12th and 13th NPCs, 2000 seats will be allocated to the 31 mainland provinces solely based on their populations. But because China's population has grown by >72 mil in the past decade . . .

China's proposed Family Education Promotion Law got a lot of media coverage in the past few days. The reports all focus on a draft provision that supposedly would "punish" parents for their kids' "bad behavior." Just exactly what type of penalties & behavior? Here's a short 🧵: First, some legislative history. The bill has been reviewed twice by the NPC Standing Committee in Jan and Aug. A draft was released for public comments after each review. The NPCSC is reviewing the bill again this week and is expected to pass it Saturday. npcobserver.com/legislation/fa…

Here's a quick look at the Law's main provisions:

1. It targets the “discriminatory restrictive measures” imposed by foreign countries on PRC persons (= individuals + entities) that violate int'l law or basic principles of int'l relations & interfere in PRC domestic affairs

https://twitter.com/NPC_Observer/status/1402981257852686338

2.

#BREAKING: @XHNews just released a summary of the contents of the new Hong Kong electoral reform decision. Here's a quick thread. Again, we are still waiting for the full text of the Decision before publishing an explainer. thepaper.cn/newsDetail_for…

https://twitter.com/NPC_Observer/status/1369910225160048641

1. Election Committee

The Committee will be expanded to 1500 members (from 1200), with a new 5th sector, whose membership isn't yet clear, but will at least include HK members of the "relevant national organizations." Unclear if District Councilors would remain on the EC.

Several HK media outlets have reported on the contents of the NPC's forthcoming decision to overhauling Hong Kong's electoral system. What do we know so far? A thread 🧵: 1. "Patriot" test for candidates for public offices

A new body will be established to vet all candidates for elected offices (incl. the Chief Executive Election Committee, Legislative Council & District Councils) to ensure they are "patriots."

#BREAKING: The #2020NPC will review a draft Decision on Establishing & Improving the Legal System & Enforcement Mechanisms for Hong Kong to Safeguard National Security 关于建立健全香港特别行政区维护国家安全的法律制度和执行机制的决定

A QUICK THREAD: From the form of this bill—it's a decision, not a "law"—and what we can tell at this point from news reports, this Decision itself is NOT the future national security law for Hong Kong. Rather, it appears to be an authorization to the NPC Standing Committee to draft such a law.