China’s leaders yesterday wrapped up a week-long key conclave at which they admitted more was needed to revive a sluggish economy battered by an ailing housing market, poor domestic demand and record-high youth unemployment.
Top officials have been upfront about the myriad challenges China is facing, admitting that a modest 5 percent growth goal would not be easy and that “hidden risks” are dragging the economy down, but they have supplied few details about how they plan to tackle the problems.
Officials have also moved to strengthen powers to deal with threats to their rule and tightened a veil of secrecy around policymaking, scrapping a traditional annual news conference and vowing to include national security provisions in a raft of new laws.
Photo: AFP
Delegates to the National People’s Congress, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), gathered at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People to rubber-stamp legislation at 3pm as the conclave came to an end.
Among the pieces of legislation approved was a revision to the Organic Law of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, which state media has said would aim to deepen the “leadership” of the Chinese Communist Party over the government.
Delegates also approved the nation’s state budget, and the national economic and social development plan for this year. Only a handful of the body’s almost 3,000 delegates voted against any of the motions.
The tightly choreographed event capped a week of high-level meetings that have been dominated by the economy, which last year posted some of its slowest growth in years.
Ministers on Saturday pledged to do more to boost employment and stabilize the nation’s troubled property market.
“Workers face some challenges and problems in employment, and more effort needs to be made to stabilize employment,” Chinese Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping (王曉萍) told a news conference.
Chinese Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ni Hong (倪虹) said that fixing the property market — which long accounted for about one-quarter of China’s economy — remained “very difficult.”
Despite official pledges of fresh support, analysts say they are yet to see the kinds of big-ticket bailouts the flagging economy needs if it is to rebound.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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