BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party ended a top-level meeting on Thursday by endorsing policies aimed at building the country’s technological power and fortifying its national security.
A statement released when the meeting ended provided only a broad-brush summary of any decisions. More details are likely to emerge days later.
“The current and future period is a critical time for comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization,” it said. “High quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.”
It said the tasks outlined in the meeting would be completed by 2029, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The meeting’s agenda focused on strategies for self-sufficient economic growth at a time when China faces tightening restrictions on access to Western advanced technology, such as leading-edge computer chips and artificial intelligence.
“National security is an important foundation for the steady and long-term development of Chinese-style modernization,” the statement released Thursday said, noting that the “leadership of the party is the fundamental guarantee” for achieving that goal.
Foreign investors and markets were watching to see what the party might do to counter the slump in China’s real estate sector and weak consumer confidence that has hindered China’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Economic growth slowed to 4.7% on an annual basis in the April to June quarter, as investments in real estate and property sales continued to decline despite a raft of measures aimed at encouraging families to buy housing.
Recent reports in state media and earlier government policy statements suggest Beijing will continue to prioritize investing in technologies and encouraging companies to upgrade their equipment and knowhow in line with leader Xi Jinping’s call for “high-quality development.”
Addressing concerns that have weakened consumer confidence, slowing China’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Thursday’s statement acknowledged the need to improve “basic and bottom-up livelihood, solve the most direct and realistic interests of the people and continuously meet the people’s yearning for a better life.”
It promised improvements to income distribution, job markets, social security and the medical system, but gave no specifics.
Likewise, the statement mentioned the need to address risks in the property market and other threats to the economy, without providing details.
Another priority is relieving the financial squeeze on local governments that have built up huge amounts of debt after a crackdown on heavy borrowing by property developers pushed the real estate industry into crisis, cutting off a vital source of tax revenues from sales of land-use rights. The announcement Thursday only alluded in general terms to the need to reform the tax system and improve integration of cities and the countryside.
Chinese leaders have repeatedly said China will keep its doors open to foreign investment and improve the business environment, despite ever-extending Communist Party controls over companies, social media, financial regulators and other aspects of life.
“This is opposite to earlier promises and pledged reforms of further opening up of the economy and pro-market policies,” Teeuwe Mevissen, a senior strategist at Rabobank, said in a report.
New incentives for foreign investors are a possibility, he said, as well as moves in line with Xi’s call for a “common prosperity” that enables ordinary Chinese to benefit more from economic growth.
Thursday’s statement repeatedly reiterated the need for openness and open markets, but also said the party must prevent any “ideological risks.”
This week’s meetings are the third plenary session of the 205-member party Central Committee, which began a five-year term in 2022. Delayed from last year, third plenums usually set major economic and policy decisions. Past landmark plenums launched China into its ascent as a world manufacturing and financial power in an era of “reform and opening up.”
Economists say the odds the meeting would announce significant stimulus spending to help boost the economy were low. Details of any policy decisions will come gradually, and probably after the party’s powerful Politburo meets later this month.
___
Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.
