China set to kick off key Parliament season amid Ukraine turmoil

China is all set to commence its key annual Parliament season amid the global turmoil over the Ukraine crisis and the impending leadership overhaul later this year as Chinese President Xi Jinping is geared up to begin an unprecedented third term at the end of his 10-year tenure this year.

China's annual Parliament season lasting over two weeks' sessions of the national legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC) and the advisory body Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will begin from Friday.

The CPPCC, which has 2,200 members mostly nominated by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) will begin its session on Friday, while NPC with a membership of 2,951 will commence its session from Saturday.

For over two weeks, the NPC, referred as the rubber stamp parliament for its routine approval of policies of the CPC, will transact annual legislative work including approving the work report to be submitted by Premier Li Keqiang in which China would outline its annual economic performance and announce new defence outlay besides other economic initiatives.

The significance of the two sessions this year is that this is the final year of the 2nd five-year tenure of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

While all his predecessors retired after two five-year tenures, Xi is widely expected to continue in power perhaps for life.

His unprecedented third-term was expected to be formally conferred by the once-in-a-five-year CPC Congress to be held in next few months as a key party Plenum meet last year formally endorsed his continuation.

He is now equated with Party's founder Mao Zedong who held reins of power until his death in 1976.

While Xi, who heads the party, the military and Presidency is set to remain in power, the composition of the government was expected to change as most of his associates, including Premier Li, may be replaced under the two-tenure norm.

The two sessions were being held in the backdrop of Russia's military action on Ukraine which had created a global political crisis not seen in recent times testing China's close ties with Russia.

Also, Beijing is also faced with major political and trade onslaught from the US, European Union and their allies over a host of issues including human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.

The global attention was also fixated on Taiwan, which fears an impending military action from China as the Chinese military ratcheted up tensions conducting hundreds of air raids into Taiwan's air defence zone.

Ahead of the two sessions, China on Thursday launched a blistering attack on American democracy, saying that the US uses democracy as a pretext to serve its own interests.

Guo Weimin, spokesperson of CPPCC, in his customary press conference ahead of the Friday's session said "democracy is diverse in its forms, and is not a patent held by a few countries."

China claims itself as People's Democracy.

The purposes for the United States to convene the so-called "Summit for Democracy" are to suppress others, divide the world while maintaining its hegemony, Guo said while answering a question.

"The democratic systems of countries should be chosen independently by their own peoples based on national conditions."

Guo criticised some Western countries for imposing their democratic systems on other countries through "colour revolutions," which have caused serious disasters.

He also hailed China's "whole-process people's democracy" and the roles the CPPCC has played in facilitating scientific and democratic decision-making through consultation, oversight, participation, and cooperation.