The annual sessions of the National People's Congress have always been more like a national rally than the parliamentary institution outlined in its own constitution. The leaders meet a large selected group deemed to represent the nation, outline their picture of national and international affairs, describe their plans and hopes for the future and call on the citizens to rally to the flag. From the floor of the house deferential speeches assure the leaders that all sections of the nation agree with them and will obey their call with alacrity. For the student outside China the first consideration is of course not what is said but how much is published. Six or eight years ago he had to wade through reams of material to catch the general flavour and find the occasional grain of fact in drifts of formal and repetitive chaff. In 1962, and now again in 1963, the problem was very different. The published documents are very brief and many passages are so generalised and indeed abstract that only an initiate can be sure of their meaning. The student's task is to expand these generalities and to suggest their context and their real meaning.