TALK OF THE TOWN: How Trump is overshadowing China’s biggest political gathering — even though he’s half a world away.

About 5,000 government officials, party bigwigs and company executives are gathering in the Chinese capital to discuss government policy for the year ahead.

Though the meetings are strictly stage managed and most of the discussions and decisions take place behind closed doors, the annual meetings, better known as the “two sessions” in China, give a glimpse into Beijing’s political priorities and economic expectations.

They will be in special focus this year as Beijing adjusts to rising uncertainty from the Trump administration and its policies.

On the sidelines of the first day of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on Friday, delegates said China was putting some decisions on hold because of the question marks over Trump’s direction.

One area of concern is currency reform.

Yu Yongding, a former member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee and a senior researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said various US issues, including Sino-US ties and Trump were having a big impact on plans to overhaul the China’s foreign exchange rate system. “We must not give Trump an excuse to accuse China of currency manipulation,” Yu said.

It’s widely believed that China keeps their currency weak in order to stimulate exports. But China has spent the last year or two — and untold billions of their foreign reserve dollars — propping up the value of the yuan, in order to avoid a balance-of-payments crisis.

That might be the kind of currency manipulation we can live with.