Confident officials vow robust growth
BEIJING » China sent a forceful message Friday advancing the top leader Xi Jinping’s sweeping agenda for the country’s economic and political ascent while drawing a hard line against challenges to Communist Party rule.
China’s leaders used the opening of the annual legislative assembly, the National People’s Congress, to unveil proposals that would drastically weaken the prodemocratic opposition in Hong Kong. They set a goal of at least 6% economic growth for this year along with announcing a robust rise in military spending. And they released a longterm plan that promised to ease China’s dependence on foreign energy, technology and markets.
The volley of actions reflected Xi’s conviction that momentum is in China’s favor as much of the world struggles with the pandemic and its economic and political aftershocks. After initially failing to contain the coronavirus last year, China imposed strict controls that all but wiped out the virus within its borders. That success has allowed for a relatively quick economic rebound and has bolstered the Chinese Communist Party’s belief that its authoritarian system has worked while the United States’ democratic system has faltered. In the months leading up to the legislative meeting, Xi has sought to emphasize confidence in China’s authoritarian path. “The East is rising, and the West is declining,” he said at a closed-door meeting last year to discuss China’s next long-term development plan.