Two Sessions

The Two Sessions, or in Chinese Lianghui (simplified Chinese: 两会; traditional Chinese: 兩會; pinyin: Liǎnghuì; Wade–Giles: Liang3 Hui4; lit. 'two meetings') is a common Mandarin Chinese abbreviation for a pair of organizations which have close relations.

For the use of the term in Christianity, see Lianghui (Protestantism).

In the Chinese government, the term refers to the annual plenary sessions of the national or local People's Congress and the national or local committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. It is used also by the officially sanctioned Catholic and Protestant churches in China, and has been used by some to avoid Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China.

Governmental usages

When referring to politics of the People's Republic of China, "national lianghui" (全国两会) refers to annual plenary sessions of the two organizations that make national-level political decisions: the National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

A less common political usage of lianghui is abbreviating the Republic of China's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taipei, and the PRC's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) in Beijing.

Internet usages

During the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, the word lianghui became a covert means of avoiding Internet censorship.[1][2][3][4] When PRC censors attempted to limit news of the Arab Spring by disabling internet searches for Chinese words such as "Egypt," "Tunisia," and “jasmine", protest organizers urged bloggers and activists to call planned protests lianghui. If the government were to censor this dissenters' circumlocution, it would effectively block internet news about the governmental NPC and CPPCC meetings.

See also

References
  1. Jeremy Page, New Chinese Call for 'Jasmine' Protest Circulates Online, Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2011.
  2. Jo Ling Kent, Organizers call for second round of demonstrations across China, CNN World, February 25, 2011.
  3. Lianghui, Schott's Vocab, New York Times, March 2, 2011.
  4. Jargon Watch, Wired Magazine, May 31, 2011.
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