China Aiming For Over Six Percent Growth: Li Keqiang

China’s top economic official announced a healthy growth target for the nation on Friday, as well as plans to become a more self-reliant technology leader amid tension with Washington and Europe over trade, Hong Kong and human rights.

The Communist Party is aiming for economic growth of “over 6 percent” as it rebounds from the coronavirus, Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech to the National People's Congress.

Some 3,000 delegates gathered for its annual two-week meeting, the year’s highest-profile political event, under intense security and anti-virus controls.

The party is shifting from fighting the virus that emerged in central China in late 2019 back to its longer-term goals of becoming a global competitor in profitable technologies and promoting self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumer spending instead of trade and investment.

China became the only major country to grow last year, eking out a multi-decade low 2.3 percent expansion after shutting down most of its economy to fight the coronavirus.

The world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.5 percent over a year earlier in the final quarter of 2020 while the United States, Europe and Japan struggled with renewed virus outbreaks.

Li vowed to “work faster to enhance our strategic scientific and technological capability”, seen by communist leaders as a path to prosperity, strategic autonomy and global influence.

The party will “regard scientific and technological self-reliance as a strategic support for national development,” he said.

The premier also promised to pursue “green development” following President Xi Jinping's pledge last year to ensure China’s carbon emissions peak by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Meanwhile, the country said it will increase its defence spending by 6.8 percent, a slight uptick from last year, amid high government debt and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic impact.

A national budget report issued Friday said China would spend 1.355 trillion yuan (US$210 billion) on national defence in the coming year.

That’s up from the 6.6 percent increase last year to 1.3 trillion yuan (US$180 billion), the lowest percentage increase in at least two decades.

The government says most of the spending increases go toward improving pay and other conditions for troops while observers say the budget omits much of China’s spending on weaponry, most of its developed domestically. (AP)