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Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized support for the country’s vulnerable elderly and young people in his New Year’s address, acknowledging the strain on some of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
Mr Xi’s speech came after his economic planners have struggled for much of the past four years to restore consumer confidence and deal with rising youth unemployment and slowing wage growth. .
The 71-year-old leader, speaking in front of a large motif of the Great Wall of China in a televised address on Tuesday night, said issues of employment, income growth, elderly care, childcare, education and health care were “always on my mind.” There is,” he said. ”.
President Xi said that a “clear call for further comprehensive deepening of reforms” was made at the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership meeting in July.
“Our top priority is to help people live happy lives,” he said. “Every family wants their children to receive a good education, the elderly to receive good care, and the young to have more opportunities to grow.”
China’s economy, the world’s second-largest after the United States, grew 4.8% in the first nine months of this year, below the Chinese government’s official target of about 5%.
Weak sentiment and deflationary pressures persist in the wake of a series of blows, from the pandemic and a yearslong real estate market downturn to President Xi Jinping’s reassertion of Communist Party control over large swaths of Chinese business.
President Xi repeated his thinly veiled warnings on Tuesday about international support for Taiwan. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has not ruled out using force if Taipei rejects unification indefinitely.
“Our compatriots on both sides of the strait are one family. No one can sever our blood ties and kinship ties, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification,” Xi said. Ta.
Mr. Xi has stepped up state support for high-tech manufacturing and industry, increasing investment in electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors and artificial intelligence, while pursuing Chinese production of key technologies.
He on Tuesday highlighted China’s progress in technological independence and breakthroughs in areas such as computer chips, AI and space exploration.
A series of policy easing measures announced by the Chinese government since September include support for some real estate and stock markets, seen as a sign that the Xi administration is shifting its focus to stimulating domestic demand. There is.
Reflecting these changes, the World Bank last week revised its GDP growth forecast for China upward by 0.4 percentage points to 4.5% next year.
But China has been rocked this year by a series of mass killings and stabbings, which some experts blame on rising social tensions. Fan Weiqiu, a 62-year-old man who plowed his car into a crowd of people in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai in November, killing at least 35 people in the country’s worst mass murder, was sentenced to death last week. 10 years.
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Ahead of a series of national holidays, the Chinese government has begun asking local governments to expand the distribution of seasonal cash transfers to people facing economic hardship, including unemployed youth.
Kelvin Lam, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the handouts would not have a significant impact on the overall economy, but could promote social stability and consumption in poor rural areas.
China’s economic outlook is further worsened by strained relations with the United States.
Under President Joe Biden, the United States restricts access to Chinese computer chips, cracks down on Chinese investment in the United States and tightens sanctions on Chinese companies doing business with Russia following full-scale invasion of Ukraine did.
Earlier on Tuesday, President Xi told Russian leader Vladimir Putin that “strategic cooperation” between China and Russia would continue to reach a high level under the leadership of both countries, according to a New Year’s message reported by the state news agency Xinhua. He said he is doing so.
Additional reporting by Wenjie Ding in Beijing, Cheng Leng in Hong Kong and Kathrin Hille in Taipei
