BEIJING — China faced “critical battles” in defusing economic risks and reining in pollution, the country’s premier, Li Keqiang, said on Monday in an annual state-of-the-nation report to lawmakers that has been overshadowed by a plan for President Xi Jinping to abandon term limits on his power.

Mr. Xi was among the Communist Party leaders who listened on the podium as Mr. Li laid out the government’s goals for 2018 in his report to the legislature, the National People’s Congress. Almost 3,000 handpicked delegates attending the congress in the Great Hall of the People also received an explanation of proposed constitutional amendments that included ending a limit of two five-year terms on the presidency.

Here are highlights from the opening day of the congress’s annual meeting, which this year will last for more than two weeks.

Justifying Xi Jinping’s power push

Just a week ago, the Chinese Communist Party abruptly revealed a proposed constitutional change that would lift the term limit on the presidency. That change would clear the way for Mr. Xi to stay in power as president and Communist Party leader well into the next decade, perhaps even longer. There is no term limit for party leaders.