Published March 14, 2024
National People’s Congress discusses future of nation amid increasingly turbulent geopolitics.
China’s plans for the coming year have been set out at its National People’s Congress.
The country is aiming for the same modest economic growth as it did last year, but its economy is facing several challenges, and geopolitical tensions are rising.
That makes the fortunes of the planet’s second largest economy of global interest – as are its political intentions.
So what’s in store for China – and the rest of the world?
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SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com
RELATED: China’s alleyways reveal its economic woes as Beijing’s legislature devises plan to address them
China’s government has responded to increasing pressure to improve the country’s economy.(Reuters: Tingshu Wang)
Published March 14, 2024
Walking through Beijing’s hutongs, you can easily see the image Xi Jinping’s government wants to project to the world.
The traditional lanes are one of the few reminders of China’s past while providing a glimpse into its economic future.
Usually a bustling hive of activity, they are dotted with brightly lit tourist shops selling everything from knick-knacks to tanghulu, skewers of fruit covered in a thick layer of crystal clear, glistening sugar.
At a glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was the perfect picture of a thriving economy.
But look a little closer and you notice some stores are making very few sales.
It is a story playing out all over the country. The rapid economic growth of the past few decades has started to slow down, failing to ratchet back up at the levels hoped for after strict zero-COVID controls were lifted.
Along with a beleaguered property market, China’s stock markets are at their lowest levels in five years, consumer confidence has tanked and millions of university graduates have been unable to find good jobs.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi told the world, “China remains strong as an engine for growth,” while addressing foreign media last week.
“The ‘next China’ is still China,” he said.
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SOURCE: www.abc.net
RELATED: Tighter control and high-tech push: Key takeaways from China’s biggest annual political event
China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, concluded its annual gathering on March 11, 2024.
Published March 11, 2024
Beijing/Hong Kong CNN — As China grapples with a struggling economy and an intensifying tech war with the United States, its leaders had one message for the thousands of political elites gathering in Beijing: the country will stay the course in becoming a high-tech powerhouse under the helm of one man – supreme leader Xi Jinping.
That note of confidence was echoed throughout a week of highly choreographed meetings of China’s rubber-stamp national legislature and top political advisory body, which concluded Monday with a ceremony in the cavernous Great Hall of the People.
The event, held largely without Covid restrictions for the first time in years, is a rare chance for the world to glimpse into an increasingly opaque political system under Xi.
Here are the major takeaways from the gathering:
Tightening control
The closing day of the National People’s Congress legislature on Monday was missing a key event – a press conference conducted by the Chinese premier. For decades, this curtain-closing “two sessions” tradition had offered foreign media and the Chinese public a rare opportunity to get first-hand insight into the thinking of the country’s nominal No. 2 official, who is charged with running its economy.
However, Beijing made the surprise announcement that it was scrapping the event last week, in a move that generated concern among observers about the ever-shrinking transparency of the Chinese government.
