Why the world will again track China's NPC

The second annual session of China's 13th National People's Congress comes at a testing time. National-level institutions like governments and parliaments across the world appear increasingly dwarfed by transnational and international bodies on one hand, and upstaged by global-scale, technology-rich, advertisement-and PR-boosted multinational corporations on the other.

Make no mistake though. The whole world will likely track the NPC session, just as it tracked similar proceedings in the past. Why? "It's the economy, stupid."

With a GDP of $13.4 trillion last year, China remains the world's second-largest economy, trailing behind the United States' $20.5 trillion. It is also on its way to the world's economic pinnacle.