China is still on track to hit its growth target, Premier Li Qiang says

BEIJING — Chinese Premier Li Qiang said Tuesday his country was still on track to reach its annual growth target of around 5%.

He said growth in the second quarter was expected to be faster than it was in the first.

China’s economy grew by 4.5% in the first quarter, better than expected. However, subsequent data have pointed to slower growth. Economic data for May missed analysts’ expectations.

“From what we see this year, China’s economy shows a clear momentum of rebound and improvement,” Li said, via a livestream of an official English translation.

Li was speaking at the opening plenary of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions.

The conference will run from Tuesday to Thursday in Tianjin, China. This year’s gathering marks the first time since the pandemic that the World Economic Forum’s annual China conference is being held in person.

Li became premier in March, following a twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle in October that packed the core team with loyalists of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China announced its growth target of about 5% for the year in March.

Li on Tuesday emphasized the need for global cooperation on trade and economic growth.

“As you know, some in the West are hyping up the so-called phraseologies of reducing dependencies and de-risking,” he said. “These two concepts, I would say, are false propositions.”

“As economic globalization has already made the world economy an integral whole where everyone’s interests are closely entwined, countries are interdependent, interconnected with each other, on their economies,” Li said. “We can enable each other’s success.”

China is a major, if not the top, trading partner of many countries in the world.

Earlier this year, Liu He, then a vice premier, spoke at the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland.

In that speech, Liu said “high-quality economic development must always be [China’s] goal,” and that the country would focus more on attracting foreign investment.

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