Chinese lawmakers are expected to delay elections for the city's legislature by another year to September 2022 according to local media.

It's a move that will boost China's effort to ensure those they deemed patriots are put in charge of the city and likely to crush any remaining democratic hopes for the global financial hub.

Many high profile pro democracy politicians and activists are already in jail or an exile after authorities cracked down on the city's mass anti government protests in 2019 and imposed a sweeping national security law last year.

A senior Chinese lawmaker says the MPC plans to expand an electoral committee that chooses Hong Kong's leader and give it powers to pick many of the city's legislators as well.

The NPC also unveiled a relatively mild defense budget for the year, a rise of around 7% from 2020.

That's despite challenges on several fronts, ranging from heightened tensions with Taiwan to US missions around Chinese occupied islands in the disputed South China Sea and an ongoing border dispute with India.

China's strategic rivalry with the United States is also expected to take center stage at the conference.

A London based economics research center predicts China will leapfrog the United States as the world's biggest economy in 2028 5 years earlier than previously forecast.