Sidelights: Closing of the Third Session of the 14th Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), What Are the Members’ Perceptions?

On a sunny winter day in January, members of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) traveled by bus to the Shanghai World Expo Center.

On the afternoon of January 17th, 2025, the same place saw the圆满completion of the third session of the 14th CPPCC committee in Shanghai, where it successfully concluded. The four-day meeting was intense and productive, with 1,102 proposals submitted by committee members focusing on urban development strategies, public opinions and wishes.

During the meeting, committee members actively offered suggestions and delivered high-quality proposals to contribute to Shanghai’s development centered on the construction of “five centers,” focusing on issues that people are “anxious, difficult, and looking forward to,” as well as on the city’s development bottlenecks.

Zhang Yuxia, a member of the CPPCC who has been serving for three years, submitted her largest number of proposals at the 2025 Shanghai Two Sessions with a total of 11 proposals, mainly focusing on the elderly and children. In addition to proposing solutions to various legal issues she has encountered in her work as a lawyer, she has also been listening attentively to other committee members and government departments during various sessions, including on-site consultations, plenary speeches, and deliberation on the government work report.

During the speech on January 16th, a proposal by Li Ming, a member of the CPPCC Standing Committee and Vice President of the Shanghai Women’s Federation about creating an environment friendly to childbirth and reducing the pressure on young women to bear children left a lasting impression on Zhang Yuxia. As a member of the women’s federation, Zhang Yuxia has also been paying close attention to women’s employment difficulties. She believes that solving women’s employment issues and their daily lives is key to creating a fertility-friendly environment.

Apart from fertility and employment issues, topics such as promoting inbound tourism, boosting consumption, and driving technological innovation have also frequently appeared in the proposals submitted by committee members participating in this meeting.

“Currently, Shanghai is striving to become a top destination for inbound tourism. Over the past year, Shanghai has continued to improve payment convenience, which not only helps foreign visitors optimize their shopping experience but also attracts more foreign investors to Shanghai, playing an important role in optimizing Shanghai’s business environment,” said Zhang Taoxu, a committee member.

Other committee members such as Zhu Yue and Huang Chunhua have also actively spoken out on how to improve Shanghai’s taxi service industry in light of the booming inbound tourism, as well as on the potential of international consumption brought about by Shanghai’s inbound tourism and suggestions for promoting it.

The construction of “five centers” is an important mission given to Shanghai by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core. Committee members have offered their insightful suggestions on various topics such as promoting the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing through producer services, driving the联动development of international financial centers and technology innovation centers, enhancing foreign investment confidence through optimizing business environment, improving the mechanism for attracting investment, accelerating the construction of Shanghai as an international consumer city, improving international commercial dispute resolution mechanisms, promoting green international trade development, and supporting urban power supply with new energy storage technologies.

Looking ahead to the new year, some committee members pointed out that technological innovation should become the “main engine” for developing new productive forces. “Technological innovation has become a lifeline for Shanghai’s urban development, and it is necessary to pay close attention to new trends in technological innovation in today’s artificial intelligence scenario,” said Li Lin, a member of the CPPCC and head of the School of Art and Communication at Tongji University. She also highlighted the need for relevant departments to pay attention to the supply of technological innovation substrates and mechanisms while focusing on both leading roles and endogenous driving forces within technological innovation.

“These days’ meetings have pointed out directions for new development,” said Jiang Xinquan, a member of the CPPCC and executive dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Stomatology. He also reflected on how technological advancements such as digitalization and artificial intelligence can assist medical and educational fields in the future. The ultimate goal is to enhance people’s sense of happiness and fulfillment.”

The closing ceremony of the CPPCC meeting was also an opportunity for many committee members to look forward with expectations. “The 2025 economic growth target for Shanghai is around 5%, and promoting consumption and expanding domestic demand will be a key focus for our urban development work,” said Tao Ran, a member of the CPPCC. “We must be confident in this.” At the closing ceremony on January 17th at the Expo Center, several committee members expressed their expectations for Shanghai’s future development.

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