Chinese leader Xi Jinping sends fresh signal of determination to push for ‘high standards’ of economic independence
- President’s comments to high-level meeting reinforce leadership’s emphasis on economic reform and hi-tech innovation
- Central reform committee meeting told that country must remove barriers and do more to promote property rights
China must “deepen reforms” to ensure “high standards” of self-sufficiency and economic independence, President Xi Jinping has told a high-level committee ahead of the country’s biggest legislative meeting of the year.
The country’s leadership has indicated its economic strategy will increasingly focus on technological innovation and domestic demand amid its deepening competition with the US, a message reinforced by Xi’s comments to the central committee for deepening overall reform on Friday.
Xi did not mention the US directly in his comments, made two weeks before the annual government work report will be released at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.
Analysts expect the leadership to use the event to provide further details of the country’s “new development model”, covering both the new five-year plan and a longer-term strategy for 2035.
A report released by state news agency Xinhua after Friday’s meeting said the committee had been told that China should take advantage of nationwide support, remove institutional barriers that restrict the improvement of core science and technology, speed up research into key technologies, and “firmly grasp the initiatives of innovation and development”.
