China increases defense budget and aims for modest economic growth

• Sjoerd den Daas

  correspondent China

After three years of strict corona measures and declining economic growth, China is aiming for a cautious economic recovery this year. At the opening ceremony of the People’s Congress, outgoing Prime Minister Li Keqiang presented a modest growth target of “around 5 percent”, the lowest growth target since the 1970s. Defense spending will increase by 7.2 percent.

Watch here how the People’s Congress was opened:

In the Great Hall of the People, the venue of the People’s Congress, Li spoke of “fierce storms” and “turbulent waters” on the world stage, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine and the increasingly strained relationship with the West. While reading his annual work report, Li, who is entering the final days of his second five-year term, said he sees challenges at home as well.

“But Comrade and Heart of Leadership Xi Jinping has brought together the Chinese of all ethnicities and dealt with their difficulties,” he said. “We have responded effectively to Covid-19 and maintained economic and social stability.”

The damage of far-reaching lockdowns in Shanghai and Xinjiang, among others, remained unmentioned. So did the protests against it in several cities, the largest since 1989.

Partly due to the ongoing corona measures and problems in the housing market, the Chinese economy grew by only 3 percent in 2022 according to official statistics, a long-term low. Consumers kept their hands on the purse strings.

After the abrupt release of the corona measures at the end of last year, hospitals and crematoria were flooded. Li: “It has not been an easy journey for anyone, but together we have overcome the huge challenges of Covid-19. We must now prioritize recovery and consumption growth.”

Corona may be officially over, previously abolished measures around the People’s Congress are back. The carefully selected journalists who were allowed to report to the Great Hall of the People after a night of hotel quarantine were subjected to a corona test. The corona app, banned at the end of last year, is also back. As in the past three corona years, Dutch media were not welcome at the opening ceremony.

“China’s representative elections are the largest in the world,” spokesman Wang Chao claimed earlier this weekend in a scripted Q&A press conference on the eve of this year’s main political gathering. “The Vibrant Practice of Chinese People’s Democracy.”

State television repeatedly switches to the Aisle for Delegates, the place where members of the People’s Congress are allowed to answer prearranged questions from Chinese journalists.

Formally, the nearly 3,000 delegates in the First Session of the Fourteenth People’s Congress, the kick-off of a new five-year term, can vote on the filling of important ministerial posts and the presidency. In practice, these names are already fixed in advance.

Thanks to an earlier amendment to the constitution, Xi Jinping only has to complete his highly unusual third term as president. Premier Li Keqiang is succeeded by Li Qiang, until recently party chief in Shanghai.

It was also announced that military spending is going up sharply. In the draft budget, which will be formally hammered out later this People’s Congress, 7.2 percent more has been budgeted for defense, although the total budget remains limited to just over a quarter of US defense spending. A total of 1.55 trillion renminbi is being issued, about 211 billion euros.

Phrases about Taiwan, seen by China as a renegade province that must be reunited with mainland China at all costs, remained largely unchanged. It was said that the Party’s policies in Xi’s ‘New Era’ should be implemented to solve the ‘Taiwan problem’.

The People’s Congress lasts a total of eight days. This makes it the shortest opening session of China’s de facto parliament in 40 years, according to the NPC Observer blog.