The opening of China’s annual “Two Sessions” this week has definitely caught the world’s attention. No doubt, China’s development is of great importance to the world, and worth learning from its model and experience.
People around the world hope to learn more about China’s future domestic and foreign policies during this annual august forum. Experts note that the two sessions are an important gathering for China and the world since the policies adopted for China’s future economic development will have a major impact on the world.
In a press conference on Tuesday on the sidelines of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reiterated that China will continue to pursue the independent foreign policy of peace, and continue implementing the mutually beneficial opening-up strategy. He added that China will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order.
Chinese modernisation offers solutions to many human development challenges. Achieving the modernisation of a country of more than 1.4 billion people will be an unprecedented feat in human history. Moreover, it breaks the myth that modernisation is Westernisation. It creates a new form of human progress and represents an important source of inspiration for the world, especially for developing countries.
In the past five years, China has strengthened environmental protection and promoted low-carbon and green development to achieve sustainable development. In addition, this development is both sustainable and comprehensive. China is pursuing the concept of mutually beneficial cooperation and developing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will create opportunities for participating countries. The idea conveyed by the BRI is to seek win-win cooperation rather than confrontation.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered a report on the government’s work at the opening session of the first session of the 14th NPC in Beijing on Sunday, where he reviewed China’s performance in 2022. In 2023, China aims to grow its economy by around 5 per cent.
Other key targets include creating around 12 million new urban jobs, an urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 per cent, maintaining consumer price index growth – the main indicator of inflation – at around 3 per cent, and grain production in excess of 650 million tons.
China has stabilised the economy, continuously improved the quality of development, and maintained overall social stability in 2022. According to the government work report, the country has made remarkable strides in economic and social development over the past five years.
The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 121 trillion yuan (about 17$5 trillion) and has experienced a compound annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent over the past five years. The economy remained the second largest in the world.
For 19 consecutive years, China has produced massive quantities of crops despite the global food crisis. Wheat production hit a new high of 686.5 billion kilograms in 2022, marking the eighth consecutive year that wheat production exceeded 650 billion kilograms.
China’s labour market was broadly stable in 2022, with a total of 12.06 million new urban jobs, beating the annual target of 11 million.
The country also made fruitful strides in scientific and technological innovation, with research and development spending rising from 2.1 per cent to over 2.5 per cent of GDP. The contribution of scientific and technological advances to economic growth also exceeded 60 per cent.
The economic structure was further improved. High-tech manufacturing and value-added equipment manufacturing recorded a compound annual growth rate of 10.6 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively, in the last five years.
The urbanisation rate continues to increase, with an estimated 65.2 per cent of China’s total population living in cities by 2022. The country has continued to improve its infrastructure, increasing the length of the active high-speed rail network to 42,000 km by 2022, and the motorway network to 177,000 km. Installed production capacity increased by more than 40 per cent in the last five years.
China has deepened its reforms and opened up in all sectors over the last several years, with the business environment improving significantly. The country’s foreign trade volume reached 42.1 trillion yuan in 2022, growing at a compound annual rate of 8.6 per cent.
China’s environment has improved significantly, with energy consumption per unit of GDP falling by 8.1% and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP falling by 14.1 per cent. Almost 100 million rural poor and a total of 832 poor counties were lifted out of poverty after eight years of effort. More than 96 million people living in poverty have been moved to hospitable areas.
The standard of living of the population has steadily increased and, in general, personal income has increased with economic growth. By the end of 2022, the number of people covered by basic pension insurance in China reached almost 1.05 billion people.
