Beijing-The important annual political event of China begins this week, gathering the main leaders of the Nation and thousands of provincial leaders to support the decisions already made by the Almighty Chinese Communist Party.
The meetings and the meeting during the National Congress of the People, which are expected to last approximately one week, remain important. The rubber seal parliament retains an important function: pointing out government priorities for next year and disseminating instructions to party members and officials throughout the country.
Leadership messaging seems unchanged from previous years: it remains in the course of promoting innovation and at the same time stimulate national consumption.
The question will be how these two objectives balance, and will it be enough to revitalize the economy? And to what extent will the government cushion the impact of what could be another phase on the American-China commercial war?
This year also marks the end of the current 5 -year plan of China, and experts will seek clues about government priorities for the next 2026 to 2030 plan.
This is what to see this year’s event:
What is China’s economic growth objective?
The National Congress of the People begins on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Li Qiang, the senior economic official of China, announcing the objective of economic growth for the year.
Analysts expect that it reaches around 5%, maintaining the same objective as the previous two years, and slightly lower than the 5.5% objective in 2022. This would not be a small thing considering that China is still dealing with a slow real estate sector and a dull expense of consumers.
Another uncertainty is commercial tensions with the United States under President Donald Trump, who last month slapped a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, while an additional 10% comes into force on Tuesday. The forecasts of the International Monetary Fund are projecting a lower growth rate of 4.6% this year.
What are government priorities?
A comment last Friday from the official Xinhua news agency indicated that priority would be given to increase domestic demand and promote innovation in science and technology.
There is also anticipation of more government support for the private sector to drive growth.
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, met in February with business leaders, including the founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma and the CEO of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, pointing to support the private sector at the highest level of leadership. A bill must also be deliberate during Congress for making a more fair and equitable business environment for the private sector.
China has already launched a series of measures to underpin the economy. Much of these have not reached the hopes of a larger stimulus, and analysts are modesting expectations about what to expect from Congress.
“I would not expect anything … come out that it will really significantly move that industrial policy policy and towards the impulse of consumption in a significant and sufficient way,” said Jacob Gunter, principal analyst of the economy research team at the Mercator Institute for China studies.
Instead, experts say that leaders maintain the course to press for innovation that would increase China’s self -sufficiency.
The purpose of the economy is no longer to improve domestic income and expand the middle class, Gunter said.
“This is not a development -oriented economy,” he said. “It is a geopolitically oriented economy, and technology and industry are much more important for that.”
Where does China’s diplomacy go?
Li is expected to touch foreign policy and Taiwan, but probably more attention will be Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
His annual press conference, which will be held later in the week, will be closely monitored to decipher China’s position on relations between the United States and China Bajo Trump. After the first 10% rates in February, China retaliates with a 15% rate on US coal and liquefied natural gas, as well as 10% in raw oil, agricultural machinery and large motor cars.
“Beijing’s response was measured to the initial rates of 10% of Trump, restricted enough to indicate the opening to the negotiations but firm enough to demonstrate their willingness to intensify if necessary,” Neil Thomas and Jing Qian wrote in a report for the Policy Institute of the Asia Society.
They point out that the president of China could use speeches in closed doors meetings during Congress to send signals about bilateral relations, as he did two years ago when XI appointed the United States as leadership of “rodeo and containment suppressions” against China.
China’s relations with Russia and its position in the Ukraine War will also be observed closely. In a recent group of 20 foreigners in South Africa, Wang said that a “window for peace is opening” in Ukraine, and that China supported “all efforts committed to peace, including the recent consensus achieved by the United States and Russia.”
What does the National Congress of the People do?
The Legislature is composed of almost 3,000 delegates from the provinces, ministries, the popular liberation army, party organizations and several groups that represent workers and other interests.
Its role is largely ceremonial, since the body has no real power to decide legislation. Any vote is usually unanimous or almost unanimous to formalize the decisions already made by the leaders of the Communist Party behind closed doors.
Even so, Congress is a rare opportunity to see what the central government sees its priorities and objectives, and reports and speeches during it can give indications of the future direction of government policy.
An advisory agency, the political consultation conference of the Chinese people, will meet at the same time. Members include business leaders, athletes, academics, religious leaders and representatives of ethnic groups. The concurrent meetings of the two bodies are known as the two sessions.
