in late 2022, the only physical reminders of the pandemic are the masks that staff wear, and the scattered booths offering alcohol wipes and masks that participants have largely ignored.
The number of in-person attendees this year has also rebounded to some 2,000 people - similar to levels before the pandemic. It is a message that Beijing has been broadcasting since China held its closely-watched annual parliamentary meetings earlier in March, when outgoing Premier Li Keqiang announced that the world’s second-largest economy is gunning for a solid recovery in 2023, promising to roll out policies to spur growth, especially in domestic demand.by growing 3 per cent, after its strict zero-Covid measures severely hampered business activity, which also led to speculations that its economy was in trouble.
Dr Xu Xiujun, director of the International Political Economy Research Office at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, a government think-tank, said that China’s commitment to propping up global growth is an “example of how China aims to be a force for certainty amid the challenges that have hampered global recovery”.