China’s National People’s Congress annual meeting opens

ANKARA

The annual meeting of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), opened on Sunday, which will mark the beginning of a norm-breaking third term of powerful President Xi Jinping.

During the NPC meeting, which caps a twice-a-decade leadership transition this year, China's top leadership is expected to discuss ways to stimulate domestic demand and boost the economic recovery.

It will also be the last working day of Prime Minister Li Keqiang, the local English daily South China Morning Post reported.

But it is still unclear as to who from the Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top echelon of power, will replace Han Zheng to oversee the simmering affairs of Hong Kong and Macau, the daily said.

Keqiang, in his last government work report, before Li Qiang, who now ranked second in the ruling Communist Party, takes over his responsibilities, enumerated his government's achievements during the past five years.

Aside from achievements in the past five years, the report focused on how Beijing handled the challenges of international turmoil and the coronavirus pandemic to steer the economy on a steady course.

However, there was no explicit mention of the controversial zero-COVID policy.

On Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island that Beijing claims as its own, Keqiang said Beijing should "take resolute steps" to oppose its independence and advance the process of peaceful reunification.

Keqiang reiterated there will be "steps" to oppose "Taiwan's independence" and promote "reunification" with the island.

"As we Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family bound by blood, we should advance economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation," he said.

Since they split in 1949, Communist-led China and Taiwan have been governed separately due to a civil war.

Increase in defense budget

Xi Jinping was re-elected as the general secretary of the Communist Party in October last year for a record third five-year term, a privilege only accorded to party founder Mao Zedong.

Beijing has set a modest gross domestic product growth target for 2023 at around 5% after missing its goal last year due to the economic fallout from its now-ended zero-COVID policy.

The target figure is slightly down from approximately 5.5% in 2022, according to a budget report delivered at the NPC session.

Last year, the world's second-largest economy recorded just a 3.0% expansion from the 2021 figure.

China also announced a 7.2% increase in its military budget in 2023. It will spend 1.55 trillion yuan ($224 billion) on defense in 2023.

China's 2023 military spending will be some 4.5-fold larger than Japan's defense budget of 6.82 trillion yen ($50 billion) for the fiscal year starting April, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported.