Crunch time for Xi Jinping at China’s annual political meeting

HOW DO YOU reset the world’s conversation about a country that is in trouble? That is the task facing China’s embattled leadership this week, during what will be the most important public-facing political event of the year. China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), is a rubber-stamp affair, but its annual session provides a rare window onto what the Communist Party is thinking. This year’s gathering will begin on March 5th with a state-of-the-nation speech from Li Qiang, the prime minister, and will end one week later. In between there is the closest you get to a public examination of the Chinese government’s performance and plans. The three things to watch for are its efforts to halt the economic panic, evidence of the long-term economic agenda of Xi Jinping, China’s supreme leader, and signs of the power balance within the misfiring leadership group itself.