China on Sunday unveiled a cautious growth target for 2023 but an increase in defense spending at the opening of its annual parliament session that will allow Xi Jinping to remain president for five more years.
The defense budget – the second largest in the world after that of the United States – will increase 7.2% this year, to 1,553.7 billion yuan (225 billion dollars), its biggest increase since 2019.
Before the nearly 3,000 deputies of the National People’s Assembly (ANP) gathered in the People’s Palace in Beijing, the outgoing prime minister, Li Keqiang, assured that “the attempts at containment from abroad continue to intensify.”
He called for “intensifying” army training as well as “combat readiness” as Sino-US tensions escalate, particularly over the Taiwan issue.
After three years of slowdown due to anti-Covid restrictions, “the Chinese economy is experiencing a solid recovery,” Li Keqiang also stressed.
However, the target set for 2023, “around 5%”, is one of the lowest in decades.
“Unexpected factors”
In 2022, China’s GDP had grown by just 3%, against a backdrop of a global economic slowdown, the Covid-19 epidemic, lockdowns and the real estate crisis.
“China’s economic development has faced multiple unexpected factors at home and abroad, such as the epidemic,” Li Keqiang said Sunday.
But “under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, we have effectively coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development,” he added.
The nine-day parliamentary session will decide on the five-year renewal of Xi Jinping as head of state as president.
The 69-year-old leader had already been confirmed as Party leader in October.
As every year, few surprises are expected from this carefully orchestrated event, during which thousands of politicians from different provinces travel to Beijing to vote almost unopposed on texts already pre-approved by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
But Xi Jinping has encountered some pitfalls in recent months, with demonstrations at the end of November against his “covid zero” policy and then a wave of deaths after abandoning this criticized health strategy.
new prime minister
These sensitive issues will probably not be discussed during this parliamentary session in which Li Qiang, a close friend of Xi Jinping and former head of the CCP in Shanghai, is due to be appointed as the new prime minister.
Security has been tightened in Beijing in recent days in anticipation of the event, with controls at the entrance to the capital and security guards present at the edge of the streets, as well as near the bridges.
Despite the zero Covid episode tarnishing his image, Xi Jinping retains a “quite strong” position at the top of the Party, making him virtually untouchable, observes Alfred Muluan Wu, a professor at the National University of Singapore.
For Steve Tsang, from the SOAS China Institute at the University of London, Xi Jinping has the opportunity during this parliamentary session to praise his management of popular discontent at the end of November.
“He acted decisively when, during the demonstrations, there were calls for him and the CCP to withdraw. He drowned them out and took away the reason” for anger, he told AFP.
So that “he can present himself as a leader, rather than as someone pushed to react,” he stresses.
MEPs will also discuss various economic and social issues, ranging from strengthening sex education in schools to increasing the birth rate to online bullying.
Source: BFM TV
