Roundtable on the 'Two Sessions' 2026

The full sessions of China’s National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference meet each year in March. These meetings are known as the ‘Two Sessions’ where reports on government progress are received, and future plans adopted. Since 1954 the National People’s Congress has been the PRC’s representative legislative assembly, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (established earlier) has been a national political advisory body.

This year the Two Sessions will meet as the National People’s Congress approves the new 15th Five Year Plan expected to include encouragement for advanced technology and manufacturing alongside an emphasis on domestic demand in the economy. There have also been calls for reform of taxation, the health and welfare systems, and educational opportunities, alongside an emphasis on increased urbanisation to 2035.

As usual, the China Studies Centre has organised a panel of experts on China’s development to comment on the content and processes discussed at the Two Sessions.

The panel will be chaired by Professor Louise Edwards (UNSW) and includes:

• Associate Professor Minglu Chen, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney
• Senior Lecturer Michael Murphree, Sydney Business School, University of Sydney
• Professor Anthony Saich, Kennedy School, Harvard University
• Associate Professor Marina Zhang, University of Technology Sydney

About the speakers

Louise Edwards (Chair) is Emeritus Professor of Chinese History at UNSW, Sydney. She is also Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures and the University of Technology of Sydney’s Australia-China Research Institute, as well as Senior Advisor to Asialink at Melbourne University. In 2022 she was appointed as Chair of the Board to the ANU’s China in the World Centre. Her most recent sole-authored books include Citizens of Beauty: Drawing Democratic Dreams in Republican China (Washington University Press, 2020), Women Warriors and Wartime Spies of China (Cambridge University Press 2016), and Women Politics and Democracy: Women’s Suffrage in China (Stanford University Press 2008). Edwards is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities.

Minglu Chen is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Government and International Relations and a member of the Executive Committee of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, where she is also the Director of the Local China Project. Her research concentrates on social and political change in China, especially the interaction between entrepreneurs and the state, and women’s political participation. Her research has been published in The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of East Asian Studies, and The Pacific Review.

Michael Murphree is a senior lecturer of International Business in the Discipline of International Business at the University of Sydney. He teaches globalization, exporting and innovation management. His research interests include globalization, industrialization and economic upgrading, innovation in emerging economies, technology standards, and intellectual property rights.

Anthony Saich is the director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs. In his capacity as Institute Director, Saich also serves as the faculty chair of the China Programs, Unseen Legacies of the Vietnam War and the Global Vietnam Wars Studies Initiative.

Saich first visited China as a student in 1976 and continues to visit regularly. Before joining Harvard, he was the representative for the Ford Foundation’s China Office from 1994 to 1999. Prior to this, he was director of the Sinological Institute at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

His current research focuses on politics and governance in post-Mao China, and philanthropy in China. His most recent books include Governance and Politics of China (2025, fifth edition); Institutional Change and Adaptive Efficiency. A Study of China’s Hukou System Evolution, with Kunling Zhang (2024); From Rebel to Ruler. One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party (2021); Finding Allies and Making Revolution. The Early Years of the Chinese Communist Party (2020).

He holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Letters, University of Leiden, the Netherlands. He received his master’s degree in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and his bachelor’s degree in politics and geography from the University of Newcastle, UK. Away from the office, he enjoys time with his family, movies, and soccer.

Marina Zhang is an academic, author and commentator whose work examines how technology and geopolitics shape the world. With a career spanning startups, multinationals and universities across Asia, Europe and Australia, she blends scholarly depth with policy relevance. She has authored industry reports, academic publications and opinion pieces on critical technologies and geopolitics, and advises governments, industry associations and think tanks globally. Her recent book, Demystifying China’s Innovation Machine: Chaotic Order (Oxford University Press, 2022; with Mark Dodgson and David Gann), frames China’s innovation system as a complex ecosystem that fuses bottom-up entrepreneurship with adaptive top-down policy.