Work report a reminder of China's commitments

I'll state the obvious: 2018 was not an easy year.

The world had a lot to deal with. Economic slowdown, bad climate news, natural disasters, the breakdown of international relationships - all phenomena heightening doubt and fear across the planet. In these troubled times, it can be comforting to know someone actually has a plan to deal with the problems we are facing.

This is precisely what I learned when I visited the Great Hall of the People last week for the reading of the Government Work Report at the opening of this year's National People's Congress session. The grandeur of the hall was as striking as when I attended last year, but the atmosphere in which the report was read was considerably more fraught.