China’s leadership ‘confident’ economy will improve
BEIJING: China’s leadership is confident the economy will improve, an official said Monday, ahead of a key political meeting in which Beijing is expected to unveil one of its most pessimistic growth targets in years. Armed police and public security workers are ubiquitous on Beijing streets as thousands of delegates descend on the capital for the annual political conclave known as the “Two Sessions”.
Front and centre at the meetings will be China’s economy, which last year posted some of its lowest growth in decades and is battling a prolonged property sector crisis and soaring youth unemployment.
Tuesday’s opening of the National People’s Congress is expected to see Premier Li Qiang announce that growth in 2024 will stay largely flat, at around five percent.
But at a Monday press conference, NPC spokesperson Lou Qinjian struck a bullish tone. China’s leaders, he said, had “ample confidence” that the economy would rebound, adding the country has “more favourable conditions than challenges in its economic development”.
“The underlying trend of a rebound in the economy and long-term growth remains unchanged.” But in a break with decades-long tradition, he said Premier Li would not be holding a press conference at the end of the NPC meeting next Monday. Long a rare opportunity for international media to question China’s top leaders directly—with usually pre-approved questions—Li had used last year’s briefing to warn that Beijing’s modest growth goals would be “no easy task”.
And in 2020, his late predecessor Li Keqiang admitted that 600 million people in China were still living on just 1,000 yuan ($139) a month—a break from China’s official claims to have defeated poverty. There was also no mention of a press conference with the foreign minister—currently Wang Yi—which normally takes place a few days into the NPC meeting.
Lou on Monday also addressed China’s hope for
this year’s presidential election in the United States, with which it has clashed in recent years on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights. Americans go to the polls this November in an election that will likely pit former leader Donald Trump against President Joe Biden. —AFP