Why are “two sessions" held in March? (3)

[Timing] People's Congress in 1998 fixed the opening date on March 5

Qin Qianhong, professor of constitutional law at Wuhan University said it had been difficult to institutionalize the durations of the “two sessions" before 1978.

Starting from the Fifth NPC and the Fifth CPPCC in 1978, the sequence numbers of the “two sessions" were also synchronized. The meeting durations have been largely overlapped, where the CPPCC session opened 1-3 days in advance.

The 1982 Constitution stipulated that the National People's Congress shall be held once a year. However, the timing of the NPC was not fixed after that. February, June, and August had all been the convening time of The NPC sessions. The fifth session of the Fifth NPPCC on which the 1982 Constitution was passed was held from Nov. 26 to Dec. 10, 1982.

Starting from the third session of the Sixth NPC until the fifth session of the Seventh NPC in 1992, the sessions of NPC all opened at the end of March and ended at the beginning of April.

At the second session of the Seventh NPC in 1989, the Rules of Procedure of the NPC were issued. This law provides that the sessions of the NPC shall be held in the first quarter of each year.

Starting from the first session of the Eighth NPC in 1993, the NPC sessions were fixed to open and end in March. Starting from 1998, the annual sessions of the NPC have been scheduled to open on March 5 and last about 10 days.

Starting from 1999, the sessions of the CPPCC have also been fixed to open on March 3 regularly.

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