China’s parliament opens with confidence about the economy despite tariffs, headwinds
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump was not the only world leader to give a big speech in front of a legislature in the past day.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Yes. Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered an annual government work report on the first day of the annual session of China's Parliament. It's a State of the Union-type address, and it gives us an idea of what's on the minds of the leaders of the world's No. 2 economy.
INSKEEP: NPR's John Ruwitch was at the Great Hall of the People - big building in the middle of Beijing - to hear this, and he's on the line. John, hi there.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Hey, Steve.
INSKEEP: So did China's leaders use this occasion to respond to what President Trump was saying here - including about them?
RUWITCH: Well, no. Li Qiang's speech was wrapping up as Trump was getting started, so we haven't really seen a Chinese response to Trump's speech yet. The Chinese government responded, though, to the new tariffs by Trump. You know, he ratcheted tariffs on Chinese imports up to 20% yesterday. They retaliated with their own tariffs on American chicken, wheat, corn, soybeans and such, blacklisted about 15 U.S. companies.
The Chinese premier did not mention the U.S. by name in his address. It's the kind of document that's drafted over the course of months - doesn't change with headlines. But he did talk about, quote, "an increasingly complex and severe external environment." Now, those are words we've heard from Chinese leaders before, and analysts say they're basically code for this confrontational situation they have with the U.S. On that front, Li flagged some concerns that that external environment may actually have a greater impact on China going forward. Rank-and-file delegates to the National People's Congress didn't seem to worry, though, about the tariffs.
INSKEEP: Oh, this is really interesting. I've been talking with economic and business figures connected with China who seem to think that tariffs will hurt Americans more than they're going to hurt the Chinese. But what are you hearing where you are?
RUWITCH: We had a chance to talk to a handful of delegates on their way into the opening session today. One of them was Tian Xuan, who's a professor of finance, part of the Shanghai delegation.
TIAN XUAN: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: So he told me that China's basically in a better position to handle the tariffs now and to offset them than before. China has a huge domestic market, for instance. It's got comprehensive supply chains. He says the authorities are taking steps to stimulate domestic demand. And he says the tariffs are also kind of a motivator for China to promote high tech and to expand relations with other countries. Economists, like you say, say the tariffs will probably start to hurt, especially if they keep going up. But these hand-picked delegates to Parliament were projecting confidence, as you might expect.
INSKEEP: OK. So that's the spin, and there's not nothing behind the spin. But also, China's economy has really been struggling, sputtering and doing strange things the last couple of years. So how do they address that?
RUWITCH: Well, the premier flagged the risks - like that external environment, like sluggish domestic demand - but he also projected some confidence. He's set a growth target of around 5% this year - it's about the same as last year - and, to get there, announced some fresh fiscal stimulus, a willingness to pursue more accommodative monetary policy to, you know, increase funding for industries of the future like quantum technology, AI, these type of things.
INSKEEP: OK. So I just want to note - this is a one-party Congress, not likely to have a failed vote or a close vote on anything, but it does, I guess, signal where the government is going. So what do you expect in the coming days?
RUWITCH: Well, one interesting thing we'll be looking out for is that the NPC may pass some legislation that would support and protect private businesses. And that's pretty interesting because the leadership here seems to have renewed its interest in these companies as drivers of the economy and innovation, especially after the Chinese company DeepSeek released an advanced AI model in January that shocked the world.
INSKEEP: NPR's John Ruwitch, with some insights from Beijing. Really appreciate it, John.
RUWITCH: You're welcome.
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