BEIJING (Xinhua/Internews): Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday stressed solid work to implement reform measures and accomplish the annual economic and social development goals with impetus from further deepening reform comprehensively.
Chairing the fifth plenary meeting of the State Council, Li underscored the need to strengthen the effectiveness of reform with economic structural reform as the spearhead, focusing on key areas like promoting fiscal and tax reform, building a unified national market and advancing new urbanization.
Urging great efforts to enhance the economic recovery trend, Li said more should be done to expand domestic demand with a focus on boosting consumption.
Service consumption should be improved in terms of both scale and quality, and differentiated support policies should be developed to suit the needs of different groups to fully unleash consumption potential, he said.
To boost investment, he said it was essential to effectively leverage the role of government investment and ensure the implementation of policies supporting private investment. The scope, scale and proportion of local government special bonds as capital funds should be increased.
The regular communication and exchange mechanism between the government and enterprises must be continuously improved, the premier said, stressing that businesses voices should be heard and considered, and their difficulties truly addressed.
New quality productive forces should be developed in accordance with local conditions, and the promotion, application and upgrade of new technologies and new products should be supported, he said.
Li also called for active adaption to change and improved high-standard opening up, more effort to attract and utilize foreign investment, support and improvement of people’s livelihood, stabilizing employment for key groups, and new measures to increase residents’ income.
Government work should be more law-based, according to Li, who noted that the fundamental goal of administrative law enforcement should be maintaining the order of the socialist market economy, so as to create a favorable business environment to boost the innovative development of all market entities.
Meanwhile, Chinese defense spokesperson has denounced the United States for attempting to maintain hegemony and intimidate the world with nuclear weapons.
Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media query regarding the United States and Japan reconstituting the U.S. Forces Japan, and their accusation of China for expanding nuclear weapons arsenal.
The United States and Japan recently have been playing up the so-called “China military threat” to make up excuses for closer military ties. Such acts provoke bloc confrontation and undermine regional peace and stability, Zhang said, expressing firm opposition.
The United States poses the biggest nuclear threat to the world, Zhang said, adding that it possesses the largest nuclear arsenal in the world and follows a nuclear policy that allows first-use of nuclear weapons.
He went on to denounce Japan, the only country victimized by nuclear strikes, for not learning lessons from history, but pandering to the United States to gain the so-called “nuclear deterrence.”
China pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defense, and is committed to the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, Zhang said, noting that China keeps its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security.
“We urge the United States and Japan to abandon their Cold War mentality, recognize that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and collective security policies, and take concrete actions to promote global strategic stability, instead of doing the opposite,” Zhang said.
