President Xi promises to boost China’s production

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping promised to increase the country’s manufacturing capacity and not rely on foreign markets, state media reported Monday.

At the annual assembly of the Stamp Parliament in Beijing on Sunday, Xi said China should be able to take care of itself.

“I have always said that there are two critical areas for China: one is protecting our rice bowl and the other is building a strong manufacturing sector,” Xi said, according to the state-run People’s Daily.

“As a large nation of 1.4 billion people, we must rely on ourselves,” Xi added. “We cannot rely on international markets to save us.”

Comments during a meeting with delegates representing China’s economically advanced province of Jiangsu belie Beijing’s concerns about an increasingly hostile international environment and lagging domestic growth.

With China’s technological ambitions met with a slew of curbs by the United States and its Western allies, Beijing has redoubled the need to build a distinct industry and ditch imports for sectors deemed vital to national security, such as automotive like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Washington has tightened sanctions against Chinese chipmakers in recent months, citing national security concerns and the possibility that the technology could be used by the Chinese military.

The highly choreographed National Party Congress (NPC) began with outgoing Premier Li Keqiang’s announcement that he would increase military spending and announce modest economic growth.

The 2023 GDP growth target of “about 5 percent” fell slightly short of market expectations and comes as Chinese authorities struggle with how to contain the recent rebalancing of global manufacturing chains towards countries like India and Vietnam.

Xi, who will begin his third term as president after securing a landmark third term as party leader last October, spoke during Sunday’s meeting about the need to ensure quality manufacturing that is “innovative, coordinated, green, open and… shared”. .

China’s state news agency Xinhua published further comments by Xi, saying that development in these key areas will propel China in its quest to become a “great modern socialist country in every respect.” -AFP