China is seeking new business opportunities with foreign businesses. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang calls on the global community to work together.
During a key meeting, Li discussed the opportunities China offers to foreign businesses. He said that countries should work together to recover from the impact of the coronavirus crisis on global economy.
“We believe that all members of the global community should pull together in a sense of partnership to prevail over the current difficulty,” Li said after China’s annual parliamentary meeting concluded, according to an official English translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.
He stressed that China would open its markets to foreign businesses. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Commerce of China reportedly told some foreign companies they can apply for travel ban exemptions if they want to their executives to return to China.
He added that Beijing and US should determine ways to work together amidst their differences.
“We have all along rejected the ‘cold war’ mentality and decoupling among two major economies will do neither side no good and it is also harmful for the whole world,” Li said.
“I believe economic cooperation and trade between our two countries should continue to follow business rules,” he said. “We should leave the decision to the market and to business leaders.”
The topics covered by the week-long National People’s Congress meeting were economic priorities and stimulus as well as the new national security law for Hong Kong.
China’s economic recovery
China, the world’s second-largest economy, decided to not announce an annual GDP growth forecast for the first time in decades.
The reason, according to Li, is the uncertainties brought by the coronavirus pandemic, which started late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan and affected over 5.6 million people around the world.
The Chinese government stated that employment would be its top priority. Their target unemployment rate is 6% for urban areas.
Social stability and economic growth depend on domestic consumption. This highlights the importance of ensuring that millions of people should be employed.
Chinese officials emphasized that they remain focused on policy goals such as alleaviating poverty, getting more foreign investment into China, and building digital infrastructure, such as 5G.
According to Macquarie’s chief China Economist Larry Hu, the unemployment target would warrant a growth of about 2% or 3% this year.
The Chinese economy had a contraction of 6.8% in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate recorded an increase of 6.2% in February.
Controversial national security law
However, uncertainties may hover over China's relations with the US after Beijing approved a national security law in Hong Kong.
According to Premier Li Keqiang, the country’s second-in-command, the decision to carry out the law was “designed for steady implementation of ‘one country, two systems’ and Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”
Reacting to the approval of the national security law, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “China is modelling Hong Kong after itself.” He reported to Congress that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China.
“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” Pompeo said in a statement.
Meanwhile, White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said that China may face US sanctions due to the national security law it proposed for Hong Kong.
