China's parliament held its annual meeting in Beijing this Friday. President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government announced that economic recovery is the priority in the coming months and that the country has controlled the spread of the pandemic nationally.
Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the session of China's National People's Congress last Thursday where the Chinese government announced full control of the spread of the pandemic nationally. The session was named as "Two Sessions" that was supposed to commence last March.
According to the director at the China Institute at SOAS in London, Steve Tsang, the significance of the meeting was crucial for the Chinese government. He claimed that the NPC has been regarded as a symbol for both the Chinese Communist Party and the president.
He further added that the meeting showed the success of China's leadership in dealing with the pandemic when the Congress session opened. At present, China has instituted measures to contain the pandemic. Still, almost all the restrictions, including travel bans, have been relaxed.
Last Wednesday, the State Council announced after the meeting that China continues to face challenging and complex times this year. The performance of the Chinese economy in the last three months was magnified in the conference. The scale was also assessed on a national level.
It was revealed that China's gross domestic product (GDP) depleted by 6.8 percent during the first contraction. The decline was at its lowest since 1992 when China began releasing economic data. HSBC claimed that the GDP forecast could be lower at two percent for the rest of the year, or even drop more drastically in the coming months.
The session revealed that Chinese premier Li Keqiang would establish plans for the rest of the year in a traditional "State of the Nation" address once the next session opens. The speech was said to discuss the usual vital targets of the country for the rest of the year. It would touch specifically on economic growth and unemployment rates.
The agenda was also said to discuss poverty alleviation, improvement measures on public health, and the establishment of new legislation. The next session would take place via video conference to ensure that the officials would observe appropriate social distancing measures.
According to the senior lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney Minglu Chen, the pandemic has caused complicated situations for China. He claimed that authorities assigned to deal with China's economic decline would usually be announcing runaway growth.
He said that there is insufficient information about the particular number of Chinese citizens that lost their jobs. He also noted that there was also no revelation as to who among the population continues to struggle financially.
The recently released economic data showed that China's unemployment rate is at six percent. However, the data does not include millions of migrant workers. They have returned to their abodes and also lost their jobs.
Economists perceive that officials would announce new stimulus measures. The forecast was based on the announcement that the Chinese government would focus on limiting the fallout from its economic collapse to preserve social stability. The goal was one of the Communist Party's critical policy objectives.
