China's congress ending with unity behind Xi Jinping's vision for national greatness

China’s national congress is wrapping up its annual session on March 11 with the usual show of near-unanimous support for plans designed to carry out ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s vision for the nation.

China's national congress is wrapping up its annual session on March 11 with the usual show of near-unanimous support for plans designed to carry out ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's vision for the nation.

This year's weeklong event, replete with meetings carefully scripted to allow no surprises, has highlighted how China's politics have become ever more calibrated to elevate Xi Jinping.

Monday's [March 11] agenda is lacking the usual closing news conference by the premier, who in the past was responsible for economic affairs as the party's No. 2 leader — the one time each year when journalists could directly question a top leader.

The annual news conferences have been held most years since 1988, and the decision to scrap the event emphasises Li Qiang's relatively weak status. Past premiers have played a much larger role in leading key economic policies such as modernising state enterprises, coping with economic crises and leading housing reforms that transformed China into a nation of homeowners.

A key item due to be put for a ritual vote on Monday are revisions of the “Organic Law of the State Council,” China's version of a Cabinet, that direct it to follow Mr. Xi's vision.

“The Communist Party always called the shots but the party leaders who ran the State Council used to have a much freer hand in setting economic policy,” Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said in an emailed comment.