BEIJING (AP) – China’s no. 2 leader set a healthy economic growth target on Friday and promises to make the country independent in technology amid tensions with Washington and Europe on trade and human rights. Another official announced plans to tighten control over Hong Kong by reducing the public’s role in government.
Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, said in a speech to China’s ceremonial legislature that the ruling Communist Party wants growth of ‘more than 6%’ as the world’s second largest economy recovers from the coronavirus. About 3,000 delegates gathered for its annual meeting, the year’s highest political event, under intense security and anti-virus control. This has been shortened from two weeks to one due to the pandemic.
The party is moving back to its long-term goal of becoming a global competitor in telecommunications, electric motors and other lucrative technologies. This is fueling trade tensions with Washington and Europe, who are complaining that Beijing’s tactics are violating its market opening commitments and harming foreign competitors.
Li promised to make progress on climate-changing carbon emissions, a move to keep President Xi Jinping’s promise last year to become carbon neutral by 2060. But he avoids aggressive targets that could weigh on economic growth.
The NPC meeting focuses on domestic issues, but is overshadowed by geopolitics as Xi’s government pursues more assertive trade and strategic policies and is criticized for treating Hong Kong and ethnic minorities. The ruling party doubled the crushing disagreement as Xi sought to bolster his image as a leader in history who could regain China’s legitimate place as a global power.
An NPC vice-president, Wang Chen, said a Hong Kong election committee dominated by businessmen and other pro-Beijing figures would be given a bigger role at the choice of the legislature of the area. Wang said the Election Committee would elect a “relatively large” part of the Legislative Council with now 70 members.
This came after a spokesman for the legislature said on Thursday that Beijing wants to “rule patriots in Hong Kong”, which promotes fears that opposition votes outside the political process will be excluded.
Li, the prime minister, said Beijing wanted to protect “national security” in Hong Kong.
The government also announced a 6.8% increase in military spending on Friday to 1.4 billion yuan ($ 217 billion) amid territorial disputes with India and other neighbors and ambitions to adapt the United States and Russia in missile, stealth fighter and other weapons technologies.
This is less than the double-digit increases of previous years, but a clear increase in real terms if inflation is close to zero. Foreign analysts estimate that total military spending is up to 40% more than the reported figure, the second highest in the world after the United States.
China became the only major economy to grow last year, expanding 2.3% by more than ten decades after industries closed to fight the virus. Growth increased to 6.5% in the last quarter of 2020, while the United States, Europe and Japan struggled with renewed virus outbreaks.
The 6% target is higher than expectations for the United States and other major economies, but less than the 7% -8% forecasters expected Li to announce.
This suggests that Beijing is shifting its focus from quantity to quality of economic growth, Chaoping Zhu of JP Morgan Asset Management said in a report.
Beijing can allocate resources to environmental protection and other initiatives “to advance China’s long-term growth potential,” Zhu said.
Li promised to “work faster” to develop technological capabilities seen by communist leaders as a path to prosperity, strategic autonomy and global influence. These plans are threatened by conflict with Washington over technology and security that led to US President Donald Trump dropping sanctions on companies, including the telecommunications giant Huawei, China’s first global technology brand.
According to the ruling party’s latest development blueprint, five years ago, efforts to make China an independent “technological power” are the highest economic priority this year.
The party sees ‘technological independence as a strategic support for national development’, Li said.
Li promised to pursue ‘green development’ after Xi’s promise last year to achieve China’s carbon emissions by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. It will require a sharp increase in clean energy in an economy that gets 60% of its power from coal and is the world’s largest source of climate-changing industrial pollution.
He promised to reduce carbon emissions per unit by 18% over the next five years. This is in line with the goal of the previous five years, but environmentalists say Beijing needs to do more.
“These are some of the key questions for the future,” said Greenpeace’s Li Shuo.
Li reiterates official promises to promote “peaceful growth of relations” with Taiwan, but does not announce any initiatives for the self-governing island that split with the mainland after a civil war in 1949.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to invade if it tries to make its de facto independence official. Li said the continent would “resolutely deter” any activity “seeking” independence from Taiwan. “
This year’s legislative meeting is mostly held through video links to keep Chinese leaders, delegates and reporters apart as an antivirus measure.
The ruling party had earlier announced that it had achieved its goal of doubling economic output from 2010 to last year, which required annual growth of 7%. Xi talked about doubling production by 2035, which will mean annual growth of around 5%, which is still one of the highest in any major economy.
As Xi seeks to strengthen its image, China has doubled the suppression of dissent in ways that can stifle innovation.
The ruling party’s desire for prosperity produced by competition in the free market also clashes with its insistence on a dominant role in the economy and strategic goals to reduce dependence on other countries.
Beijing will promote “domestic circulation,” Li said, referring to the official pressure on industries to use more components and technology provided by China and rely less on foreign inputs, even if it increases costs.
The emphasis on self-confidence and the conflict with Washington has raised fears that the world could split into different American, Chinese and other industrial spheres with incompatible technologies, less competition and higher costs.
The goal of ‘decoupling foreign technology’ is ‘more likely to hurt productivity than to help it’, Capital Economics Mark Williams said in a report this week.
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AP authors Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan and Zen Soo in Hong Kong, contributed to this report.
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This story corrects the current size of the legislature in Hong Kong to 70 members, not 35.