Post-pandemic China is roaring back, but its new proposals on environment and Hong Kong should concern the West.
You are browsing in private mode. To enjoy all the benefits of our website LOG IN or Create an Account It has been almost exactly a year since China beat Covid-19. By early March 2020, daily new case numbers had fallen below 100. By the end of the month, even Wuhan was nearing the end of its lockdown. Since then the case numbers have remained low (but for a couple of subsequently contained regional outbreaks) and the country’s economy has roared back. Despite the intense lockdowns early in the year it grew overall by 2.3 per cent over 2020, the most of any major economy. A recent report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research think-tank predicts that China will now overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously expected. The New York Times reports on a recent speech by a regional Chinese official quoting Xi Jinping, the country’s president, observing behind closed doors that “the east is rising and the West is declining”. Such is the backdrop to this year’s meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which began this morning in Beijing and at which some 3,000 delegates (some present, others attending virtually) will over the coming days approve a draft, composed by the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October, of China’s next five-year plan. It will be the 14th since the plans were introduced as a cornerstone of policy-making in 1953, and will cover the period to 2025. In his speech opening the meeting this morning, premier Li Keqiang announced an economic growth goal this year of over 6 per cent. It was in fact a cautious target (the IMF estimates it will grow 8.1 per cent) but nonetheless a confirmation that the world’s second largest economy is enjoying a powerful recovery.
