China Congress event ends
Chinese military band members file out after the closing ceremony for the National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Sunday. Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday that the government will press ahead with changes to reduce the government’s role in the Chinese economy.
BEIJING — Premier Li Keqiang expressed determination Sunday to press ahead with changes meant to reduce the Chinese government’s role in the world’s second-largest economy in hopes of spurring growth despite what he acknowledged would be pain for “vested interests” that benefit from regulation.
“This is not nail-clipping. This is like taking a knife to one’s own flesh,” Li said at a news conference after the close of China’s annual legislature in Beijing. “But however painful it might be, we are determined to keep going until our job is done.”
During his only news conference of the year, the premier repeated pledges to reduce requirements for government approval of new businesses. He said the number of private businesses being set up has doubled after efforts already underway to simplify the process of registering a new enterprise.
Li spoke after Sunday morning’s close of the 11-day session of the ceremonial National People’s Congress. The legislature does little or no lawmaking work but serves as a platform for the ruling Communist Party to highlight proposed changes and set a tone for the year’s government work.
At this year’s meeting, the government lowered China’s official economic growth to 7 percent from last year’s 7.5 percent and promised to maintain employment levels, fight corruption and curb pollution.
Li acknowledged that changes face opposition from politically influential state companies that might face tougher competition and officials who might see their own statuses reduced.
“During the course of reform, vested interests will be upset because the government is cutting its own powers,” he said. “This reform, by reducing powers held in the hands of government, has actually helped us to tackle the downward pressure on economic growth,” Li said.
The address by Li, 59, afforded him an opportunity to emerge from the shadow of the president and Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, who has established himself as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping — author of China’s modernization drive in the 1980s.
Although the premier has traditionally overseen the economy and government administration, Xi has absorbed a growing number of portfolios over his first two years in office, leaving Li a much-diminished figure. Xi has placed himself in charge of policy-making panels on security, the Internet and the economy that do not answer to the National People’s Congress.
Li warned that meeting the lower official growth target will not be easy. He said the ruling party is ready to change its macroeconomic strategies if the rate of new job creation dips too low.
“There is considerable downward pressure on China’s growth, and we still face multiple challenges,” the premier said. “When it comes to China’s economy, we must meet both ends of maintaining steady growth and making structural adjustments.”
While expressing cautious confidence in the economy, Li said China ranked behind more than 80 countries in per capita gross domestic product and still had 200 million citizens living in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Also in Li’s work report this year were some targets for battling pollution, a continued emphasis on fighting corruption and a pledge to find jobs for the 7.49 million university students who will graduate this year.
“Enforcement of environmental laws should not be a cotton swab but a killer mace,” Li said, vowing to hold polluting factories liable for excessive emissions while also urging members of China’s society to take part in cleaning up the environment.
During the annual session that closed Sunday morning, the congress approved a single piece of legislation in the form of amendments intended to modernize and update China’s legislative law, which acts as a sort of constitution governing how laws are enacted.
Li also spoke on Hong Kong, saying residents shouldn’t fear that China is tightening its grip on the former British colony. He added that the government is committed to granting the city a high degree of autonomy.
Li made the remarks as the Hong Kong legislature considers adopting a plan granting the government in Beijing the ability to control the city’s first election of its chief executive. The proposal triggered pro-democracy demonstrations that choked central Hong Kong last year.
“Some people are worried that the central government is tightening its policy toward Hong Kong,” Li said. “I believe that such a worry is not necessary.”
Pro-democracy lawmakers have pledged to veto the Beijing proposal, and the government of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying may be short a handful of votes to get the measure passed. If the plan isn’t accepted, the chief executive will continue to be chosen by a committee of 1,200 of the city’s elite. Information for this article was contributed by Joe McDonald, Christopher Bodeen and Didi Tang of The Associated Press and by staff members of Bloomberg News.