China's annual high-level political meetings opened Thursday with a minute's silence for the victims of the
Coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed over 4,600 lives in the country since emerging late last year.
Delayed by two months because of the outbreak, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) -- a largely ceremonial advisory body -- began its first session a day before the start of the country's most important legislative
Congress.
More than two thousand delegates from across the country bowed their heads in silence after singing the national anthem in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.