Li Kequiang tells annual press conference of ‘acute pain of reform’, but meetings overshadowed by smog documentary Under the Dome

China will struggle to meet its growth target of around 7%, but still has the means to shore up its economy, the country’s premier, Li Keqiang, said on Sunday. “In recent years, we have not taken any strong, short-term stimulus policies … We still have more tools in the toolbox,” Li told his annual press conference, marking the end of major political meetings in Beijing.

China lowers growth target to 7% as it fights 'deep-seated' economic problems Read more

Analysts suggest that China, which saw 7.4% growth last year, will probably miss its target again. Authorities are hammering home the need to adjust to a “new normal” of lower growth as the country seeks more balanced development. “The pain of reform is still there. Actually the pain is becoming more acute,” Li said.



“This is not nail clipping, this is like cutting off one’s limb with a sword and we have to do it despite the pain.”



Questions at the press conference are pre-screened and it rarely offers major political revelations: many of Li’s remarks echoed those he has made in previous years. But, like the spring meetings of the largely rubber-stamp parliament and the country’s political consultative body, it helps to indicate the government’s plans and progress.



The themes highlighted over the sessions include:



Pollution

The meetings were overshadowed by the runaway success of smog documentary Under the Dome, praised by the environment minister - but then deleted by censors.

China takes environmental documentary that went viral off the web Read more

David Kelly, of research and advisory company China Policy, said the “evident bungle” reflected a lack of talent at the executive officer level: “It could not have been produced and shown without some major approvals … But public reaction went beyond what they were prepared for.”



Li said authorities were determined to tackle pollution, adding: “The progress we have made still falls short of the expectations of our people.”



Shi Lei, an environmental economics professor at the Renmin University of China, noted that Beijing had increased funding for environmental protection and introduced action plans to tackle air and water pollution. But local governments, industries and social finance were still lagging, he said.



Zeng Kanghua, a fiscal studies expert at the Central University of Finance and Economics, warned that environmental spending was the easiest cut for policy makers if there was pressure to reduce spending.



Retirement

The government laid out plans to raise the statutory retirement age gradually, facing the “demographic timebomb” China faces with fewer young people entering the workforce and a growing number of pensioners.



“Once [the public] see the urgency of this change, they will come around,” said Yao Yang, dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, adding that China should also sell off the assets of state owned enterprises to fund pensions and stop encouraging people to retire early.



Yang Lixiong, an expert on social security at Renmin University, said life expectancy had soared since the retirement age was set in the 1950s. He argued that population policies must also change so that families can have more than one child.



Foreign NGOs

Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress, acknowledged the benefits that foreign non-governmental organisations had brought, but said China needed to better regulate them for national security reasons, increasing concern over a new law being drafted.



Non-profits fear that stricter rules will make their work far more difficult and may force them to close. Under the as yet unpublished bill, the public security ministry - rather than the civil affairs ministry - would register them. The law would reportedly prevent them opening more than one office, raising funds locally, or funding projects contrary to “Chinese society’s moral customs”.



Corruption

Authorities highlighted the continuing crackdown with comments on several major cases and announced the investigation of Yunnan deputy party chief Qiu He on Sunday – just after he appeared at the NPC.





Tibet

Statements that the Dalai Lama must be reincarnated – the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has hinted he might not be – and that the atheist Communist party will decide on the next incarnation were widely reported.



“Decision-making power over the reincarnation … and over the end or survival of this lineage, resides in the central government of China,” said Zhu Weiqun, who heads the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative conference.



But Robert Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University, portrayed that as a face-saving restatement of a longstanding position and drew attention to proposals at the CPPCC that monasteries should play a role in society and that changes are needed to longstanding quotas limiting the number of monks per institution. He said previous remarks from Zhu suggested there was a new nationalities policy, adding: “The Panchen Lama’s [proposals] were the only sign [yet] that tells us what a new policy might mean.”

