Beijing is expected to resist market pressure for a much stronger stimulus to spur China’s economic recovery at its flagship annual political event this week, with President Xi Jinping focused instead on the longer-term goal of turning the country into an advanced manufacturing superpower, analysts have said.
Thousands of delegates from all over China will descend on Beijing for the opening session of the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament, on Tuesday where Xi’s number two official, Premier Li Qiang, is expected to deliver a “work report” outlining the country’s targets for economic growth and military spending as well as policy priorities.
The NPC meeting will be scrutinised for signs of how the Communist party, which will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China this year, plans to deal with what analysts see as multiple geopolitical, demographic and economic hurdles facing the country.