Speech to the Symposium on the occasion of China’s “Two Assemblies”
London, 20 March 2025
Thank you, Ambassador Zheng, for your comprehensive and enlightening presentation on the perspectives and outcomes of the recent ‘two sessions’, the annual pinnacle of China’s whole process people’s democracy. Having also attended the event at the Bank of China this Monday, I feel particularly privileged to have been able to listen to your insights twice this week.
On March 13, Foreign Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Thongsavanh Phomvihane met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, becoming the first foreign minister to visit China since the ‘two sessions’.
At their meeting, Wang Yi noted that these gatherings had set an economic growth target of around five percent for 2025. This, he said, reflects a scientific attitude of seeking truth from facts, an enterprising spirit of striving hard to deliver, and the resolve to meet difficulties head-on.
I find this to be a succinct summary of the Chinese approach. Serious study and deliberation, so as to find ways to surmount difficulties and obstacles from within and without, and to formulate practical and realistic policies which put people first, are people-centred, and are geared towards improving their livelihood.
They illustrate how China is focusing on addressing what President Xi Jinping’s described, at the 19th Party Congress in 2017, as the principal contradiction at the present stage in China, namely that between unbalanced and inadequate development on the one hand and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life on the other.
President Xi has said that if people are awakened only at election time but go into hibernation afterwards, this is token democracy. On this basis, I think it’s very important to look not only at what happens at the ‘two sessions’, but also what happens afterwards.
And this year, China has wasted no time at all in following up. It has hit the ground running. On March 16, a 30-point program was released aimed at vigorously boosting consumption, including by increasing wages and social provision on the one hand, and alleviating financial burdens on the other, thereby stimulating the economy by boosting public and consumer confidence.
The Xinhua News Agency put it as follows: “By connecting consumer spending to broader social goals like elderly care improvement, childcare support and work-life balance, the plan embeds consumption growth within China’s wider development objectives, signalling that consumption is being positioned not just as an economic target but as a means to enhance quality of life.”
China is definitely not immune from the headwinds in the global economy, and especially the capricious and irresistible behaviour of the current incumbent in the White House. In fact, with the combination of its key role in world trade and global supply changes, along with its being the main target of protectionism, trade and tariff wars, and technological blockade, it is impacted more than most.
Yet, it is certainly the best prepared and the best equipped to navigate its way through the present maelstrom, without panic and with policies that benefit the mass of people rather than increasing their burdens.
China is able to do this on the basis of the firm foundations laid since 1949, and especially since 1978, and particularly through the dual circulation theory which expands the role of the internal market while not neglecting the external.
The contrast with our own country could scarcely be more striking. While China is set to increase wages, especially the minimum wage, step up enforcement of paid leave, ease the costs of childcare and care for the elderly, and improve the work-life balance by, for example, increased and more easily accessible provision of cultural events and sports activities, thereby stimulating the economy by putting more money in people’s pockets, and affording greater scope to enjoy it, our own government, ironically in the same week, has outlined proposals, which in the words of the Guardian, mean that, “up to 1.2 million people with disabilities will lose thousands of pounds under the government’s welfare overhaul… as campaigners warn the plan will exacerbate the country’s mental health crisis and push more children into poverty.”
It is ironic, therefore, but sadly not surprising, that the same Guardian newspaper should have described China’s latest measures as an attempt to “lift its struggling economy.”
It evidently escapes the newspaper’s attention that, whilst China has set the bold but realisable target of repeating last year’s 5% growth, the UK’s growth last year was 0.9% and most economists project, perhaps optimistically given government policies, growth this year of between 1.2-1.5%, with Bloomberg settling for 1.3. Not particularly encouraging for a government that claims growth for its mantra.
It is well past time for people in Britain to shed the New Cold War mentality and start learning from China.
Thank you.