China admits that growing GDP has become a very difficult task

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For the first time, Premier Li Keqiang has admitted to Communist Party cadres that achieving the 2022 GDP growth target of 5.5% will be a very difficult task. The speech was given at a conference held on Wednesday (25) with nearly 100,000 delegates from 2,844 Chinese counties and districts.

Li has been emphasizing since last month the need for extraordinary measures to heat up the economy, but the succession of lockdowns to combat Covid has become a major obstacle.

Party cadres admitted during the event that there is a possibility that China will not grow in the second half.

The state news agency Xinhua reproduced the premier’s statements, referring to the Chinese leadership’s concern about unemployment indicators, industrial production, energy consumption and freight transport, all of which are affected by the pandemic.

Also according to the vehicle, the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic is now, “to some extent, much more challenging than those experienced in 2020”. Even so, China shows no signs of abandoning the Covid zero policy.

At the meeting, Li stressed the need to “coordinate epidemic control” to advance the country’s “economic and social development efficiently, stabilizing growth”.

The CCTV Evening News, the most important news program on the state TV network, devoted two minutes to the event. He highlighted national efforts to “promote high-quality development”, the same term previously used in the pages of the People’s Daily to discuss China’s economic difficulties in 2022.

why it matters: With the exception of the turbulent years that followed the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, China has been on a trajectory of economic growth since 1978, something unprecedented in modern history. The country’s rapid development has taken with it a number of other partners, including Brazil, which has benefited enormously from China’s need for commodities.

A China with slow growth (or even recession) is something the world has not seen in decades. The effects are sure to be felt across the global economy, from stagnation to rising inflation.

what also matters

Canada has decided to ban Chinese Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G networks. The local government cited “serious concerns” about possible harm to national interests.

• The country said it feared that the two companies would be forced to comply with orders from the Chinese state, which would put Canadian security at risk;

• As 5G is expected to be an almost ubiquitous connection modality in people’s lives, the government preferred to ban the deployment of products and services from both companies.

Firms that already have Huawei or ZTE equipment installed will have to remove them by the end of 2027.

An entire university has been quarantined after routine tests for Covid pointed to an outbreak on campus in Beijing.

The Beijing Institute of Technology in Fangshan has also been classified as a high-risk area for the disease (which, in practice, could force anyone walking through the area to self-isolate).

According to the committee responsible for managing the pandemic in the capital, four people were diagnosed with Covid at the institution. About 670 people lived on campus, but the city did not confirm how many were sent to quarantine centers.

It’s not the first time something like this has happened in China. In early May, after one person tested positive in the mass testing campaign at Shandong University in the east of the country, at least 400 people considered close contacts of the infected were immediately isolated.

keep an eye

In partnership with two private companies, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that tests of an oral drug developed against Covid-19 managed to shorten the period of infection in patients contaminated with the omicron variant and who showed mild symptoms.

According to the researchers, the tentatively named compound VV116 will now undergo phase 3 trials to assess safety and efficacy. There is still no deadline for completing the study.

why it matters: Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer for home treatment of Covid, received emergency approval in China in February. However, the drug is expensive (US$250, about R$1,200), and its production is limited, which restricts its use only to people with comorbidities. If it works, a home-made pill could spell China’s exit from heavy Covid-zero policy restrictions.

to go deep

• Xi Jinping has been appearing less frequently on the cover of People’s Daily (the official newspaper of the Communist Party), which is usually a sign of trouble. In this excellent article, the China Media Project explains what this could indicate for the leader’s political future. (free, in English)
• Janaína Silveira continues the series on Sino-Brazilian relations on the Radar China channel. She is speaking this Friday (27) with the director of the Brazil-China Business Center, Cláudia Trevisan, about the results of the session between the Chinese and Brazilian vice presidents. (free, in Portuguese)
• The BBC published a long report with unpublished photos and reports about the re-education camps in Xinjiang, places where China has been imprisoning Muslims of the Uighur minority since 2017. (free, in English)