China comes out swinging at ‘Summer Davos’, but talks up markets and US trade
The international pressure has impeded avenues that Beijing laid down to provide new economic growth points.
And, in addition to rising external trade frictions, China is also facing internal economic problems, including weak consumer confidence and mounting local government debt.
[The government] is mainly for creating a better environment for competition
But despite the internal economic hazards, Premier Li once again vowed that China would achieve its annual gross domestic product growth target of around 5 per cent this year.
The World Economic Forum concluded on the same day that China confirmed its political elite would gather in Beijing for four days in mid-July for the third plenum, which is expected to provide development goals for the next decade.
Peng Sen, the former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, suggested it would “mean minimising government intervention in the micro economy”.
“[The government] is mainly for creating a better environment for competition,” Peng added.
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China should have better policies to support the “vibrant, competitive and creative market entities”, especially the creativity development of private firms, he said.
“We are still willing to deepen cooperation with the United States in trade and investment, because everyone knows that the essence of Sino-US trade is win-win cooperation,” he said.
In response to the fierce trade war with the US that began in 2018, China has relocated parts of its industrial and supply chain to Southeast Asia and Mexico to evade US tariffs on Chinese domestic products.
And China’s efforts appear to be reflected in the data, as emerging markets and developing countries accounted for 56.7 per cent of its trade last year, surpassing traditional partners such as the US and Europe.
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