China sets growth target at 25-yr low

Beijing, March 5 

Premier Li Keqiang today slashed China’s GDP target to a 25-year low and omitted customary mention of defence allocation as the Parliament started annual meet hailing ‘core leader’ status of President Xi Jinping.

Li, the second-ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the ruling Communist Party of China, in a 42-page work report to the National People’s Congress, set GDP growth target at around 6.5% for this year, down from last year’s 6.7%, indicating the continuation of slowdown.

This closely-watched target is a 25-year low, down from last year’s actual growth of 6.7%. The previous low was a 6% target for gross national product growth in 1992, a report by state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Hundreds of journalists from home and abroad lined up since early morning outside the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China’s power, to see Li’s target for 2017, which sets the tone for the world’s second largest economy for this year.

The projected target is in line with both economic principles and realities, the report said, adding that it will help stabilise market expectations and facilitate the country’s structural adjustments.

It will also contribute to achieving the goal of finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the report said.

Defending his move to fix the 6.5 per cent target, Li said that it was important for China to maintain steady growth to ensure employment and improve people’s lives.

Conspicuously absent in Li’s report and other documents circulated by the Planning and Finance Ministries to the 2,900 members of the NPC was the customary mention of the defence allocation for the world’s largest military of 2.3-million.

NPC spokesperson Fu Ying yesterday announced that China will increase its defence spending by around 7 per cent this year, the slowest hike since 2010. China’s defence budget is the second largest after the US.

It is customary in China’s legislative process to include the total amount for the defence allocation in work report to the NPC legislators. It is not clear whether the defence budget was privately circulated to the lawmakers away from the media glare.

The absence of the defence budget was a surprise as it was rare in recent years and the Premier’s report made no mention of it though Li said all efforts were being made for modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army to improve its combat readiness.

Last year, China increased its defence spending by 7.6% allocating about 954 billion yuan ($143.7 billion) about three times that of India. — PTI

Will resolutely oppose Taiwan’s independence: Beijing

• China will resolutely oppose Taiwan’s independence, Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday amid heightened tension between Beijing and the island
• China claims Taiwan as part of its mainland and opposes any country having any political and diplomatic relations with the self-ruled island
• China recently took exception to US President Donald Trump’s comments that he would negotiate on the ‘One China’ policy
• At the same time, Li said the notion of Hong Kong independence would lead nowhere, and Beijing would ensure that the principle of “one country, two systems” is applied in Hong Kong and Macao

Boosting military

• China’s military build-up has rattled nerves around the region, particularly because it has taken an increasingly assertive stance in territorial disputes in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and over Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
• China pledged more support for its military, including strengthening maritime and air defences as it takes steps to safeguard its sovereignty, but in a highly unusual move did not give spending figures for 2017 despite promises of transparency State news agency Xinhua also did not report the figure. 
• “We will strengthen maritime and air defence as well as border controls and ensure the important operations related to countering terrorism, safeguarding stability, international peacekeeping and providing escorts on the high seas are well organised,” Premier Li said said.