China’s No 1 priority is still GDP growth, senior economic official asserts, amid focus on ‘common prosperity’

Comments from Han Wenxiu come amid worries that focus on high-quality development and ‘common prosperity’ could sideline growth priorities

Han, 59, is expected to rise to a prominent role in the next Chinese leadership to be announced in March

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Han Wenxiu is deputy director at the office of the Central Economic and Financial Affairs Commission. Photo: SCMP

Published: 6:00pm, 6 Nov 2022Updated: 9:19am, 7 Nov 2022

China needs to regard development as the No 1 priority and ensure a “reasonable growth” of the national economy in a persistent way, a senior economic official said, outlining goals for the next five years.

The comments from Han Wenxiu, deputy director at the General Office of the Central Economic and Financial Affairs Commission, come amid market worries that China’s emphasis on high-quality development and common prosperity could sideline the decades-old priority for growth, with the current slowdown feared to jeopardise the development trajectory.

Han, 59, is expected to rise to a prominent role in the next government line-up to be revealed when the national legislature convenes next spring.

His explanation indicated that regardless of domestic and external headwinds, the world’s second-largest economy will continue to highlight gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first year of President Xi Jinping’s third five-year term.

We must keep national economic growth within a reasonable range for a fairly long period so that the pie can get bigger, and people’s living standards can catch up with that of developed countries

Han Wenxiu

“We must keep national economic growth within a reasonable range for a fairly long period so that the pie can get bigger, and people’s living standards can catch up with that of developed countries,” he wrote in an article included in Beijing’s official explanation of the guidelines released at the 20th party congress last month.

The congress underlined common prosperity as a top economic priority and added the pursuit of “high-quality development” to the party’s constitution, further fuelling speculation over whether China was prepared to sacrifice some growth to ease a widening wealth gap.

Han, a top aide to outgoing vice-premier and “economic tsar” Liu He, is among only a few senior economic cadres remaining in the newly reshuffled party Central Committee announced at the congress. Another is Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.