The Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, will open in Beijing on Saturday. [Special coverage]
The meeting, which will gather about 3,000 legislators from across the country, is the highest-level body where Chinese people exercise their power.
Here is a brief introduction to what will be going on during the annual session.
-- What's the agenda of this year's NPC session?
A draft of the 13th five-year development plan (2016-2020) will be submitted to the session for review and approval.
A draft law on charity is to be read by the legislators at the session. The bill has already gone through two readings at the NPC Standing Committee's bi-monthly sessions.
Lawmakers will, both in plenary meetings and gatherings within their own delegations, deliberate six reports on the work of the government, of the NPC Standing Committee, of the judicial and prosecution authorities, on the government's budget and the country's economic and social development plan for 2016.
There will be no remarkable personnel changes for voting.
-- Why is this year's NPC session so important?
The session is a valuable platform to accumulate consensus and pool wisdom to cope with challenges posed from China's economic "new normal", with growth slowdown in the world's second largest economy and pressing economic restructuring and reforms in almost all fronts.
The year of 2016 marks the start of the 13th five-year plan (2016-2020) that is the last before China's first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
The draft development plan to be reviewed at the upcoming session will mark the priorities and list detailed measures the country will take during the "last mile" of this drive.
At the annual session's opening meeting, in particular, Premier Li Keqiang will deliver his annual government work report, which will set the target of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2016 and other indices including the consumer price index (CPI) and employment. It will also include the country's fiscal and monetary policies as well as priorities of government spending.
The draft charity law will be the country's first law to regulate charity activities and protect the interests of donors, beneficiaries and volunteers.
Several high-profile press conferences, including one by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and another by Premier Li Keqiang at the end of the session, will be held on the sidelines of the session.
-- What are the subjects of major public interest toward the session?
Livelihood issues remain high-profile with a few trendy topics every year.
At this year's online poll of "what's hot at the two sessions" at the People's Daily's website that has been done since 2002, about 3.88 million participants chose "social security" to be their No.1 focus, followed by "income" and "medical reform", as of Friday.
At another similar online poll by Xinhuanet, a leading news website, the top three topics are pension program, food safety and distribution of wealth.
Last year people buzzed about the "economic new normal". This year the fresh topics are "financial risk", considering the serious stock market fluctuations in the past year, and the "Belt and Road Initiative".
Anti-corruption, education, housing and environment continue to be dominant topics like previous years.
