The focus [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

As the excitement and holiday mood of China's Spring Festival wears off and the nation goes back to work, the Year of the Sheep kicks off in the usual way with the formal exposition of the government's policy goals in the annual "two sessions" of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), to be held as usual in the first week of March.

Following the major test of the Spring Festival family reunions, China's transport infrastructure faces a somewhat lesser challenge as thousands of delegates travel to Beijing for another great reunion.

As has become normal, the Chinese leadership has issued a general statement of purpose in advance of the meetings, with further details regarding the individual elements of the programme to be discussed during the "two sessions" and released in the post-meeting communiqués.

For the purpose of tabulation and easier memorability, the general statement usually comprises a small number of headings: thus, following the "three represents" of the Jiang Zemin era, we now have "four comprehensives." These headings do not normally represent new departures: they are used to focus intensively on policies already in place, giving a unifying general direction to existing policy. China does not believe in sharp turns and breaks in the development of policy, though there may be changes of emphasis to fit changing times and requirements.

The "four comprehensives" provide a balance between economic and political goals. The first is the achievement of a "moderately prosperous" society. The word "moderately" shows the intention of managing the public's expectations, after the astonishing speed of growth over the last 30 years. Everybody must have known that such growth rates could not be sustained forever, and that China would at some point have to adjust to slower and steadier rates; that moment has now come. The stimulus packages of previous years, reaching into the trillions of RMB, will now cease. When the target growth figure is announced by the NPC, it will be surprising if it is higher than 7 percent - still a figure of which most countries can only dream.