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In China, on the occasion of the closing of the annual parliamentary session on Monday, March 13, the new Chinese Premier, Li Qiang, made his public debut at a press conference in which he tried to reassure the private business community.
With Stéphane Lagarde, RFI correspondent in Beijing
Within the Chinese Communist Party, the roles are distributed in this way, it is the Prime Minister who is in charge of the economy. Smiling, with his index finger pointing several times at a wall of cameras, Li Qiang answered the journalists’ questions (probably submitted in advance), without notes and affirming, at least three times, his confidence in the fundamentals of the second economy. world, which continues to recover from the Covid years: its XXL market, the dynamism of its companies, especially in exports. In passing, he took aim at those in the United States who advocate disengaging from China.
Stability and support for the private sector
“According to Chinese data, trade between China and the United States reached $760 billion last year, which is an all-time high. China and the United States must cooperate. If we cooperate, we can achieve great things. Encirclement and repression will not are a solution,” Li Qiang said.
The Chinese growth target, set at 5% for this year, will not be easy to achieve, says the head of the State Council, who, to reassure the markets, recalls his knowledge of the business world and “the difficulties of companies”. A knowledge forged during his career in the administration of the rich eastern provinces (Jiangsu and Zhejiang) where the policy of opening up to red capitalism was applied.
China’s private sector has been badly hit in recent years by regulatory crackdowns on the new technology, Internet, and private education sectors in particular.
Li Qiang talked about the pioneering entrepreneurial spirit that needs to be recovered, the central government’s support for the private economy and the labor market. He did not respond, however, to systemic risks: the real estate crisis, the indebtedness of the provinces. Li Qiang preferred to cite the heroes of his generation, the local Stakhanovists highlighted by propaganda, capable of raising mountains: “All countries have difficulties,” he added, “the Chinese people have always overcome theirs.”
Security and the “iron wall”
The Chinese premier’s press conference was preceded Monday morning by the closing ceremony of the first parliamentary session of the 14th National People’s Congress. Xi Jinping spoke for the first time in his third term. The head of state also referred to the economy: “We should promote high-level opening-up and make good use of the world’s market and resources for our development and promote the common development of the world,” he said.
But security was the main topic of this short speech. After ten years in power, the Chinese leader has eliminated his rivals. The Communist Party must strengthen its security supervision and modernize its army, declared Xi Jinping, 69, at the end of a parliamentary meeting that allowed him to validate a team at the head of state made up of his close guard. The occasion to bring out the concept of “great wall of steel” already used in the 100 years of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Security is the foundation of development, stability is the precondition for prosperity, he insisted. We must comprehensively promote the modernization of the national defense and the army, and turn the people’s army into a great steel wall that effectively protects sovereignty , security and development interests of the country,” he said.
A development that must be shared, repeated the Chinese president, according to the principles of reducing differences in wealth, as shown by the policy of “common prosperity” that he initiated and that continues to make the private sector tremble.
