Guest commentary by Kerry Brown 

It is not the content of this year’s meeting of the annual Chinese parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), that matters most. The announcements of growth targets, elements of economic reform, and policy measures for the coming year are largely conditioned by the 13th Five-Year Plan which started last year, and a host of other government documents and announcements leading up to the Congress. What is most striking about the meeting this year is that, for the first time, it shows the ways in which China’s domestic preoccupations and issues are truly global ones.

In the past, those even aware the NPC was happening outside of China were in a small minority. It was regarded as a part of the Chinese domestic political calendar, with the main attention focused on announcements of GDP targets. But now, with the disarray in Washington and Europe, the geopolitical gravity of the world is shifting. And an event showcasing policy parameters for the coming year in China is not just a local one, but has international implications.

This is not to claim that suddenly China is running the world. It certainly isn’t. Nor does it intend to. It has said that often enough. But it does show the ways in which the dispersal of influence and power away from traditional centers, which has been ongoing since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, is now accelerating.

No one pretends that the US is going to vanish, or that its immense military and diplomatic importance will disappear. But under Trump, the move to a more inward looking, protectionist politics makes what is happening in China significant in ways which were never so apparent before.

The main message of the NPC this year therefore is simply that, unlike with many other places where uncertainty reigns, China has a plan, a strategy for at least the next few years. The specific outcomes of the various meetings that constitute the Congress are not what matters in this context. The main thing is to convey, clearly, that despite differences in political system, the Chinese government has at least some idea of where it is heading, how it relates to the world around it, and how it intends to achieve its complex domestic goals stably.

There will be a host of key words that come out of the 2017 Congress: supply-side, reform, sustainability. But one word that will be utterly necessary, even though it might not even be said, is confidence. With Europe facing a divisive, hugely important presidential election later this year that might see a far-right candidate victorious, and with the US beset by massive issues thrown up by the Trump presidency and the chasms this is showing within American public opinion, China working as a force of stability has never been more important. A Congress that conveys this message not just within China but internationally, is crucial. Any space for doubt or lack of conviction in the government to manage its internal and external challenges will only add to a global environment where there is already too much lack of clarity and certainty. 2017 therefore will need to be the Congress for stability – something that matters to the world, not just to China.

(Kerry Brown is a professor of Chinese Studies and director, Lau China Institute, King’s College London. The article reflects the author’s opinion, not necessarily the view of CGTN.)