BEIJING (AP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s agenda for the annual meeting of the ceremonial legislature: Revive the economy by encouraging consumers to spend more now that severe anti-virus controls have ended, and install a government of loyalists to intensify Communist Party control over the economy and society.
Xi, China’s most powerful figure in decades, has no formal role in the National People’s Congress (NPC), which will convene a meeting of its full membership on Sunday. But he looms over every event: the 69-year-old awarded himself a third five-year term as party general secretary in October, possibly making himself leader for life.
The two-week gathering of 2,977 NPC members is the year’s highest-profile political event, but its lawmaking work is limited to endorsing ruling party decisions. Its more important function is to provide a platform to publicise government plans and give members instructions to take home to cities and provinces.
Xi and other leaders say their priority is to reassure consumers and entrepreneurs it’s time to spend and invest after restrictions that kept millions of people at home, temporarily shut down Shanghai and other industrial centres and wiped out jobs were lifted in December.
The economy faces challenges ranging from weak global demand for exports and lingering United States (US) tariff hikes in a feud over technology and security to curbs on access to Western processor chips due to security fears. At home, the workforce has been shrinking for more than a decade, putting pressure on an economy that still relies on labour-intensive industry.
Economic growth fell to three per cent in 2022, the second-weakest level since at least the 1970s.
The ruling party needs to “fully release consumption potential”, Xi said at the party’s annual planning meeting, according to a text published on February 16.
Xi gave no details but said Beijing should encourage spending on electric cars and medical and elderly care, home improvement, culture and sports. He warned at the December meeting that work “will be complicated”.
A consumer-led rebound might take longer than stimulus spending or igniting a boom in real estate investment. But Chinese leaders are trying to avoid options that would push up debt they worry already is dangerous high.
Forecasters expect Premier Li Keqiang, the top economic official, to announce a growth target of five to 5.5 per cent in a speech on Sunday on plans for the year. Li, an advocate of free enterprise, is due to be replaced as premier at the congress after being sidelined as No. 2 party leader in October.
The International Monetary Fund and some private sector forecasters expect much weaker annual growth, as low as 4.4 per cent.
“It takes time to say whether the economy will turn around,” said Song Huimin, a supermarket owner in the city of Jinzhou. He said sales are better than six months ago but not back to pre-COVID levels.
“People want to consume, but they still don’t have enough income,” Song said. “Some people still are out of work.”
