On March 5th, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council delivered the Government Work Report, pointing out that China’s development journey over the past year was truly extraordinary. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was successfully convened, laying out plans for further comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese-style modernization. We solemnly celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which greatly inspired the patriotic enthusiasm and striving spirit of people of all ethnic groups across the country.
Over the past year, in the face of complex and severe circumstances marked by mounting external pressure and growing internal difficulties, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, people of all ethnic groups in China forged ahead with determination and tackled tough challenges. The economy performed generally steadily and made progress while maintaining stability. All major annual economic and social development goals and tasks were successfully accomplished. High-quality development was advanced in a solid manner, and new productive forces developed steadily. China’s economic, scientific and technological strength, and composite national strength continued to grow. Chinese-style modernization took new solid strides forward, further strengthening our resolve and confidence in building a great modern socialist country in all respects on the new journey of the new era.
The momentum of “stability” was consolidated and sustained: This was mainly reflected in the steady expansion of the economic scale. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 134.9 trillion yuan, growing by 5%, ranking among the top in growth rates of major world economies, and contributing around 30% to global economic growth. Employment and prices remained generally stable: 12.56 million new urban jobs were created, and the average surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1%; the consumer price index rose by 0.2%. The balance of payments was basically balanced. The scale of foreign trade hit a record high, and China’s share in the international market rose steadily. Foreign exchange reserves exceeded $3.2 trillion. Livelihood security was solidly strengthened: per capita disposable income of residents grew by 5.1% in real terms. The achievements in poverty alleviation were continuously consolidated and expanded. Support for compulsory education, basic elderly care, basic medical care, and social assistance was increased. Risks in key areas were resolved in an orderly and effective manner, and overall social stability was maintained.
The pace of “progress” was solid and forceful: This was mainly reflected in new progress in industrial upgrading: grain output exceeded 1.4 trillion jin for the first time, with per-mu yield rising by 10.1 jin; the value-added of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing grew by 8.9% and 7.7% respectively; annual output of new energy vehicles exceeded 13 million units; the value-added of information transmission, software and information technology services, and leasing and business services grew by 10.9% and 10.4% respectively. Innovation capacity was further enhanced: new breakthroughs were made in fields such as integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology; Chang’e-6 achieved humanity’s first sample return from the far side of the Moon; the Mengxiang (Dream) ocean drilling vessel was completed and put into service; the transaction volume of technology contracts rose by 11.2%. The quality of the ecological environment improved: the average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in cities at and above the prefecture level dropped by 2.7%, the proportion of days with good air quality rose to 87.2%, and the proportion of surface water sections with good water quality increased to 90.4%; energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by more than 3%; newly installed capacity of renewable energy reached 370 million kilowatts.
New breakthroughs were made in reform and opening-up: We firmly implemented the reform plans from the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, completed institutional reform in full, and rolled out major reform measures such as building a unified national market and progressively raising the statutory retirement age. All restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector were lifted. Trade and investment cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative continued to expand and upgrade. Looking back on the past year, these achievements were hard-won. Faced with multiple difficulties and challenges, we intensified the implementation of existing policies, optimized macro-control in a timely manner, and responded actively and effectively. In particular, we resolutely implemented the package of incremental policies decisively deployed at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on September 26th, which drove a notable economic rebound and effectively boosted social confidence. This not only helped achieve the annual goals but also laid a sound foundation for this year’s development.
In this process, we deepened our understanding of the laws governing economic work. We further recognized that the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee is the fundamental guarantee for doing economic work well. We must properly balance the relationships between an efficient market and a capable government, aggregate supply and aggregate demand, fostering new growth drivers and upgrading old ones, optimizing incremental growth and revitalizing existing stock, and improving quality and expanding scale. Practice has once again proven that, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with concerted efforts from all sectors of society, China can overcome any difficulty on its development path.
We strengthened and innovated macro-control in response to changing circumstances, driving economic recovery and improvement: Premier Li Qiang stated in the Government Work Report on March 5th that over the past year, we strengthened and innovated macro-control in response to changing circumstances, driving economic recovery and improvement. The economy got off to a good start in the first quarter of last year. However, affected by various domestic and international factors, major indicators continued to decline after entering the second quarter, with increasing downward pressure. We strengthened counter-cyclical regulation, adopted targeted measures to address prominent problems, and pressed ahead with the implementation of both existing and incremental policies. This led to a rapid rebound in demand, accelerated production growth, and markedly improved market expectations. The economy throughout the year showed a trend of strong start, moderate slowdown in the middle, and strong recovery in the latter part.
We effectively implemented fiscal and monetary policies: we expanded spending scale, strengthened financial support for key areas, and cut the reserve requirement ratio and policy interest rates twice, further reducing social financing costs. To expand effective demand, we solidly advanced the construction of major national projects and key regional projects, and intensified support for new forms and models of business. Investment in equipment purchases rose by 15.7%, and retail sales of home appliances grew by 12.3%. We promoted the stabilization and recovery of the real estate market: we lowered mortgage interest rates and down payment ratios, reducing annual interest expenses on existing home mortgages by about 150 billion yuan for residents; we cut transaction taxes and fees, and made solid progress in ensuring the delivery of pre-sold housing. We actively stabilized the capital market: we accelerated the improvement of basic systems, and created tools such as swap facilities and re-lending for share repurchases and holdings increases, boosting market activity. We increased the quota for local government special-purpose bonds by 6 trillion yuan in one go to replace hidden local government debts. We steadily advanced the reform and risk resolution of small and medium-sized local financial institutions.
We unswervingly deepened reform and expanded opening-up, boosting endogenous driving forces for development: Premier Li Qiang noted in the Government Work Report on March 5th that over the past year, we unswervingly deepened reform and expanded opening-up, boosting endogenous driving forces for development. We cleaned up and abolished regulations and practices that hinder the development of a unified national market, formulated and implemented regulations on fair competition review, and introduced measures to standardize local investment promotion. We deepened the reform of state-owned enterprises and continued to optimize the layout of the state-owned economy. We submitted the draft Law on the Promotion of Private Economy to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for deliberation, improving the development environment for the private economy.
We actively fostered new growth areas in foreign trade: the structure of imports and exports was continuously optimized, and exports contributed more to economic growth. We fully implemented the negative list for cross-border trade in services. We launched pilot programs for opening up in value-added telecommunications, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals. We intensified unilateral opening-up: we granted zero-tariff treatment to products from all least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China. We expanded the scope of unilateral visa exemption, and extended the stay period for transit visa exemption to 240 hours, leading to a continuous rise in inbound tourism. High-quality Belt and Road cooperation yielded remarkable results, with steady progress in a number of major projects and livelihood programs.