2024-03-05 01:44:49
China’s National People’s Congress met for its annual session in Beijing on Tuesday. Prime Minister Li Qiang opened with his work report and presented the eagerly awaited target for this year’s economic growth. As in the previous year, it was given as “around five percent”. By March 11th, the almost 3,000 members of the hand-picked parliament will approve the plans of the government of state and party leader Xi Jinping.
Because of the problems in the world’s second largest economy, many companies are hoping for important signals at the meeting. Observers will also be looking at the setting of China’s military budget in light of tensions with the island republic of Taiwan. Other topics are likely to include the country’s opening up to investments and reforms, as well as the “new productive forces” that Xi Jinping has recently often prominently addressed in public speeches – a term with which China wants to focus on the country’s progress through digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
The growth target is seen as ambitious by observers. In the previous year it was narrowly exceeded at 5.2 percent, but experts have serious doubts about the reliability of the Chinese statistics. In 2023, catch-up effects after the corona pandemic played into the government’s hands, which will no longer apply this year. The Chinese economy has recently suffered from weak global demand, a struggling real estate market and weak domestic consumption.
Chinese military spending is expected to increase by 7.2 percent this year to 1.67 trillion yuan (214.03 billion euros). This emerges from the draft budget that was presented at the start of the parliamentary session. Beijing had already increased its military budget by the same amount last year. The decision to increase the budget is also likely to be related to the tense relationship with Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway province, and disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea. Experts have not yet expected a war to break out in the strait between China and Taiwan. However, Beijing wants reunification with the island republic – if necessary with military means.
The People’s Republic maintains the largest army in the world in terms of an estimated two million active soldiers. China’s defense budget has grown faster than total spending in recent years. The increase was also mostly above the economic growth rate
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