People’s Congress + Military budget + Doris Fischer on chip sanctions

The annual National People’s Congress (NPC) has begun. With 3,000 delegates, it is theoretically the largest legislative assembly in the world. But in reality, they do not have much to say. They rubber-stamp what the party leadership hands them. The new personnel tableau after the departure of the previous Premier Li Keqiang and the experienced economist Liu He has also already been decided.

And yet: Things are not as seamless behind the scenes – and we pay attention to the details. Li Keqiang leaves office with one of the worst economic years ever. He is now presenting a program to revive the economy, writes Frank Sieren in his analysis of the government declaration. But his successor will have a hard time implementing it. The economic policy has built up far too many contradictions for that.

Another tradition at the start of the NPC is for the leadership to announce the defense budget. For 2023, it will be higher than ever before. But as our author Joern Petring analyses, it is not an excessive increase. In recent years, defense spending has already grown faster than the economy. The reason for this is the tensions with its neighbors. However, China has to a large extent entangled itself in them.

Another central issue of the government’s statement is China’s elaborate technological rise. The US is currently blocking it with sanctions on semiconductor products. But the chances are good that China will be able to acquire all the necessary capabilities to produce modern chips, says Doris Fischer, a China economist from Wuerzburg, in an interview with Finn Mayer-Kuckuk.

As you can see, we provide you with plenty of analytical reading material on this year’s People’s Congress.

Your
Felix Lee