After 2020, 2022 to be second worst year for China’s economy since 1970s: Report

Beijing:

The two sessions of the top political meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began on Saturday, March 4 and are expected to last for two weeks. The government has set its 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) target at its lowest level in years. The NTD reported that it also announced a 7 percent increase in military spending, the second highest in 5 years.

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The outgoing head of state, Li Keqiang, made the final “government work report” during his tenure on 5 March during the meeting, setting a target for China’s economic growth (GDP) of about 5 percent this year, which was higher than expected. was less outside world.

2022 was the second worst year for China’s economy since at least the 1970s, bettered only by the year 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the strict regime’s restrictive “zero-COVID” policy and control measures. Was behind, NTD told .

China’s GDP growth rate has continued to decline quarter by quarter since 2010, from 12.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010 to 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. From 2021 to 2023, the “Government Work Report” released by the ruling CCP gradually lowered the economic growth rate targets at 6 percent, 5.5 percent, and 5 percent, respectively.

Even with a lower target rate in 2022, the last reported GDP growth was only 3 percent, well below expectations, due to factors such as the pandemic, the impact of strict lockdowns on industries and consumption, and the international political situation.

While commercial real estate is dying, the growth of residential real estate is such that no one wants to buy a home anymore. Real estate is a disaster in tier III and IV cities. Manufacturing and export industries in China’s more prosperous coastal regions are also struggling.

Fujian is a major manufacturing and foreign trade province in China, selling light industrial products such as shoes, clothing, textiles and food to the domestic market and overseas. Owners of several local private construction companies expressed to the media that they are facing a sharp drop in product orders.

Chinese media Economic Observer.com reported on March 2 that a number of factories in the eastern coastal cities of Suzhou and Qushan have reduced hiring of new workers, according to a recruitment agency. Some factories which used to recruit 200-300 workers daily in the last two years, now recruit only 20-50 people.

The authorities cannot save China’s economy. CCP leader Xi Jinping is expected to appoint an economic team during the two sessions, which will be headed by new premier Li Keqiang.

The Chinese regime also announced an increase in military spending on 5 March that this year’s military budget is 1,553.7 billion yuan ($224 billion), an annual increase of 7.2 percent, the second highest in the past five years. The CCP’s military budget has continued to increase in recent years despite a slowing economy, in the context of tensions over Taiwan, intense regional conflicts and international turmoil, which has caused international concern.

From 2019 to 2022, the annual growth in China’s defense spending announced by the CCP is 7.5 percent, 6.6 percent, 6.8 percent, and 7.1 percent, respectively.

According to World Bank data, China’s military expenditure last year was 1.7 per cent of its GDP. In contrast, the US military budget, which meets various security obligations around the world, is 3.5 per cent of its GDP.

Wang Chao, a spokeswoman for the CCP’s National People’s Congress, claimed on 4 March that the regime’s defense budget increase was “relatively moderate and reasonable” and “not only needed to deal with complex security challenges but also shoulder the responsibility of a large country”. “

Mainland China observer Wang, who did not want to give his full name because of security concerns, said the CCP’s purported goal is to export the disaster to the rest of the world.

“For them there is no difference between right and wrong, such as giving economic support to Russia and supporting Russia to invade other countries. My guess is that a large part of China’s financial resources is to support Russia’s war. spent doing.”

Su said, “The CCP’s military spending is to match its expansionist national strategy, which will certainly pose a threat to the world. The threat it poses to the Taiwan Strait is a part of its strategy.”

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