{"id":503261,"date":"2026-03-04T13:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/503261\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:34:07","slug":"national-peoples-congress-to-set-chinas-economic-goals-for-coming-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/503261\/","title":{"rendered":"National People’s Congress to set China’s economic goals for coming years"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s<\/a> ceremonial legislature is set to meet Thursday, where it will unveil the country\u2019s policy direction and economic goals for the coming years. <\/p>\n

The meeting is held in Beijing, where the National People\u2019s Congress and its advisory body gather. The National People\u2019s Congress will ratify new laws decided by China\u2019s Communist Party leadership. While the near-3,000-member body technically votes, the vote is always almost unanimous. <\/p>\n

Also meeting is the Chinese People\u2019s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body composed of elite members of Chinese society, from business people to athletes. They also include representatives from China\u2019s minority groups, but the body has little power on issues of public policy. <\/p>\n

The gathering is called the Two Sessions. The political meetings have changed under President Xi Jinping, with tighter scripts<\/a> and less scope for debate. <\/p>\n

\u201cA long, long time ago, it was a venue for policy deliberation,\u201d and even controversial things, said Alfred Wu, a professor of public policy at the National University of Singapore. \u201cNow it\u2019s very much become a showcase, propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economy is front and center<\/p>\n

The National People\u2019s Congress is when the Chinese premier announces the country\u2019s GDP target and other economic targets for the year. <\/p>\n

This year, observers are also waiting for details for the 15th five-year plan, of which the government had revealed a draft in October<\/a>. It is expected to be focused on building tech prowess and self-sufficiency. <\/p>\n

China issues five-year plans to direct its economy, a legacy of its historical approach when it had a planned economy.<\/p>\n

The Chinese economy remains sluggish, with high youth unemployment, weak housing prices and sagging domestic consumption. It also faces a trade war with the U.S., which has leveraged tariffs on all Chinese goods.<\/p>\n

Lou Qinjian, the spokesperson for this year\u2019s National People\u2019s Congress, said Wednesday that the government would maintain its efforts to improve living standards and boost consumption. Those would include raising incomes and improving the education, child care, elderly care and health care systems so \u201cconsumers will feel freer to spend,\u201d he said at press conference.<\/p>\n

Experts have said China will have to strike a tough balance between its goals<\/a> of boosting its tech manufacturing, such as in robotics, renewable energy and AI, and boosting domestic consumption as many ordinary people are feeling the pinch. Tech supply chains are narrow and the trickle-down effect is less pronounced.<\/p>\n

China is likely to drop its headline growth target to a record low, predicted Neil Thomas and Lobsang Tsering, policy experts at the Asia Society. It will be significant as a step in a \u201cshift from high-speed to high-quality growth,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

A push for ethnic assimilation<\/p>\n

The National People\u2019s Congress is also expected to ratify a new law governing China\u2019s ethnic minorities. While a final draft has not been released, experts say the latest public draft focused on assimilation, reducing autonomy for the country\u2019s minority groups.<\/p>\n

Lou said the legislation fosters \u201ca stronger sense of community among all ethnic groups in the Chinese nation\u201d and outlines steps to promote interaction, exchange and integration.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce enacted, we will work to implement it thoroughly and advance Chinese-style modernization through the great unity of the Chinese nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lou highlighted the Communist Party\u2019s push for unity several times during the press conference and credited past five-year plans with delivering not only rapid economic growth but also long-term stability, a major concern of party leaders.<\/p>\n

Personnel movements are not expected<\/p>\n

China\u2019s legislature dismissed 19 members last week<\/a>, after a highly publicized removal of two of the country\u2019s most senior generals in January. <\/p>\n

Now, only one member remains of the powerful Central Military Commission, which controls the military, but policy experts say they do not expect any personnel announcements in the upcoming Two Sessions. Observers like to closely watch attendance for any signs of possible purges, however.<\/p>\n

Xi Jinping has removed possibly up to 100 senior officials in the People\u2019s Liberation Army in the past four years, according to the Center for Strategic Studies, with the most prominent being General Zhang Youxia<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

Yet, there is likely no great rush from the leadership to find a replacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re particularly worried about this,\u201d said Wu of National University Singapore. For example, he said, Wang Yi became foreign minister again after stepping down from the job initially because of the high-profile removal of Qin Gang, previously his replacement.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s ceremonial legislature is set to meet Thursday, where it will unveil the country\u2019s policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1204,550,28,144,3327,8876,101,793,962,2026,3139,1929,229301,131359,111,229300,24646,965,6132],"class_list":{"0":"post-503261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-beijing","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-china-government","13":"tag-economic-indicators","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-government-policy","17":"tag-international-news","18":"tag-international-trade","19":"tag-labor","20":"tag-lou-qinjian","21":"tag-neil-thomas","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-qin-gang","24":"tag-wang-yi","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-xi-jinping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}