The two sessions now under way will provide the positive energy needed for the new leaders to implement reforms

March sees the return of spring, a season that has been greatly valued by the Chinese since ancient times because of the belief that the work for a year is best begun in spring. It might be this type of traditional thinking that explains China's habitual scheduling of the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee for early spring.

The two sessions now under way, however, differ from their predecessors in several ways.