By Mu Qian

Bill Smith still can't boast of covering eight annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) because his boss has done that 15 times. But the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) correspondent knows what the German news agency is interested in during the sessions: China's economic policy.

In fact, DPA's dispatches on Premier Wen Jiabao's Government Work Report are perhaps the most popular with its subscribers. "This year, I've attended more group discussions of NPC deputies from the provinces, so we can get a wider variety (of voices)," he says.

At a group discussion of deputies from Shanghai, Smith asked mayor Han Zheng whether the municipal government had plans to extend the maglev (magnetic levitated) railway line. He couldn't get any new information. "But I had to ask the question in the hope that I might be lucky enough to get something new," he says. "The maglev line is big news for Germany because the German government and companies are wondering whether they can get more contracts."

The ongoing NPC and CPPCC sessions have drawn 877 journalists from abroad and 421 from Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan - record numbers both. Besides European countries and the US, there are also more journalists from developing countries such as Kenya and India. But their focuses vary.

China correspondent of The Times of India, Saibal Dasgupta, says the Indian media are interested in the NPC and CPPCC sessions because many of the issues they discuss and deal with are similar to those in India - acquisition of farmland for industrial use, rising prices and pollution, for example.

"Basically, every foreign journalist wants to know what is happening in China because this is one-fifth of the world. The biggest issue for us is how China is changing not only in finance and industry, but also in other aspects such as leadership, the idea about socialism and the lives of people in under-developed regions," he says. "China is a very good example for India in many respects. For instance, Indians are very curious to know how China has been able to check its population growth."

Dasgupta speaks just a smattering of Putonghua, which definitely is not enough to interview a Chinese. That's why he's happy to see more documents in English this year. That apart, he applauds the more forward-looking attitude of the organizers and their greater eagerness to help journalists.

Several new services have been started for journalists this year, including online applications for interviewing NPC deputies or CPPCC members, providing information on upcoming events through text messages and running shuttle buses between the International Club and the Great Hall of the People for overseas scribes.

Covering the two sessions is a great way to know China, Dasgupta says. But the NPC and CPPCC sessions alone can't answer all his questions, for which he says one has to explore more aspects of the country and society.

Smith corroborates him, and that's the reason why he has been gathering as much information on the Beijing Olympic Games at the NPC as possible.

Playing host to so many journalists from abroad has given people like the NPC and CPPCC press center's deputy director, Zhu Shouchen, the chance to know what they want and the way they work. The number of overseas journalists covering big events in the country has been growing steadily. And August will see their number peak to about 30,000 when they gather from across the world in Beijing to cover the Games.

(China Daily March 14, 2008)