Beijing, Mar 12 (PTI) China’s Parliament on Thursday ended its much-publicised annual session, approving a host of laws, including the new five-year plan to halt the slowdown of the country’s economy, an enhanced defence budget and the controversial ethnic law making Mandarin compulsory for all ethnic minorities.
The National People’s Congress (NPC), often termed the rubber-stamp Parliament for its routine endorsement of laws approved by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), ended its annual session in less than two weeks.
The NPC, along with the top advisory body – the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – together with over 5,000 deputies, began their annual sessions in the first week of March.
The two sessions evoked international attention as they were held in the midst of turmoil over the US-Iran war and massive military purges carried out by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi, 72, attended the session of both Houses.
Earlier, in his speech to over 240 deputies attending the two sessions, Xi, who also heads the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high command of the PLA and the CPC, made an open call to military officials to increase political loyalty, meaning following the Party’s leadership.
This is Xi’s first meeting after the removal of two senior military officials, including the highest-ranking PLA General Zhang Youxia, in January which was regarded as a major purge of the PLA in recent history, sending shock waves among the rank and file.
Significantly, Zhang Shengmin, the last standing General of the six-member CMC, in his speech at the current parliament session, called on the military to resolutely obey the command of Xi.
NPC session began on March 5 with Premier Li Qiang, a close associate of Xi, presenting work report of his government which for the first time in recent years lowered China’s GDP target to 4.5 to 5 per cent for this year in the face of Trump’s tariff war, the worsening global crisis following the US-Iran war and headwinds in the domestic economy, owing to property market slump and unemployment crisis.
China has been setting a five per cent target for the GDP for the last three years amid growing domestic economic challenges.
China’s economy grew by 5 per cent last year to USD 20.01 trillion, riding high on the robust exports despite US tariffs, while domestic consumption, its bugbear, remained sluggish.
The NPC on Thursday approved the defence budget of about 1.91 trillion yuan (about USD 278 billion), an increase of seven per cent from last year in yuan terms, as part of China’s efforts to ramp up rapid modernisation of armed forces to catch up with the US military.
The parliament session, China’s biggest annual show, was held in the midst of the US and Israel attacks on Iran, a close ally of Beijing for over a decade.
While China benefited from procuring Iranian goods cheaply, Tehran gained much of its military procurement from the Chinese military.
As attacks on Tehran intensified disrupting the global oil supplies including that of China, the international attention was on Beijing’s reaction, whether it would extend open military support which Tehran was expecting under the bilateral strategic partnership.
However, China, which is gearing up to host US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing from Mar 31st to April 4, strongly condemned the attacks as well as the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei but stayed clear of the conflict.
Earlier, China declined to take any military action when US forces invaded Venezuela and captured President Nicholas Maduro, a close ally of Beijing.
Observers say that China is staying clear of confrontation with the US ahead of Trump’s visit as it hopes to clinch a tariff deal with Washington, besides keeping its option open to take over Taiwan at an appropriate time without much clash with the US.
The NPC has also approved the 15th five-year plan, stated to be the most consequential initiative to revive China’s sluggish economy, bogged down with stagnant domestic consumption, with a wider population declining to spend on anything other than essentials. The plan was projected by the government as a roadmap to accelerate scientific breakthroughs with AI applications across the economy.
The plan changed China’s decade-old emphasis on infrastructure development to technological breakthroughs with more investments into new productive forces backed by an “AI+” plan to integrate AI into manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and education.
The plan also envisages heavy investment in semiconductors, robotics, biotechnology, quantum computing, and emerging fields such as 6G communications and brain-computer interfaces.
The NPC also approved the controversial new ethnic law to culturally and linguistically integrate with the majority Chinese Han community, which constitutes over 90 per cent of China’s population.
The new law bolsters the legal foundation for advancing high-quality development and common prosperity among its 56 ethnic groups, including Tibetans and Uyghur Muslims, making up 8.9 per cent of the population, who for decades resisted the CPC’s efforts to completely assimilate them into the mainstream Han culture.
Critics say the new law represents a setback for the identity of ethnic minorities as it mandates the use of Mandarin Chinese in compulsory education, among other things. PTI KJV ZH ZH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.