Eighteen days have passed since Israel launched its bombardment offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip, following a deadly attack on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. The conflict had killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, about 40 percent of which were children, and about 1,400 Israelis as of Monday, according to media reports.

Many countries, including China, have openly called on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint, and immediately end hostilities, to protect civilians and avoid further loss of life.

While the US, in sharp contrast, is actively transporting more lethal weapons to Israel, demonstrating conspicuous support for its "close ally," as it has done in many previous bloody conflicts in the region.

The US is also the sole vote against a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would have condemned Hamas' attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza, with 12 members voting in favor and Russia and the UK abstaining.

US President Joe Biden visited Israel on October 18, "putting himself in harm's way to show that he stands squarely with the country," according to US media sources. Before his arrival, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that Israel "has the right to defend itself," when announcing Biden's Israel visit.

The US' unsurprising one-sided support, including its military aid, will likely escalate the already fraught situation between Israel and Hamas, and reduce the likelihood of peace talks between the two sides in the near future. That may lead to further catastrophic loss of life, warned some experts in international relations and Middle East affairs reached by the Global Times.
Heightened tensions

Despite footage of innocent children killed in airstrikes causing a global outcry, the US is sending more arms and ammunition to Israel, intensifying the running gun battle on the ground.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced over the weekend that Washington is sending multiple military ships and the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, "as a show of force to its closest ally in the region," Al Jazeera reported.

"I have directed the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to begin moving to the Eastern Mediterranean…the Eisenhower CSG will join the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which arrived earlier this week," read a statement by Austin published on the US Department of Defense website, on October 14. Previously, the US Air Force had announced the deployment of F-15, F-16 and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons to the region.

Increased US force posturing signals the country's "ironclad commitment to Israel's security," said the statement.

As Israel has an absolute military advantage over Hamas, the US' military support for Israel is more of a political tool for the Biden administration to demonstrate its allyship to Israel and its domestic politicians, analyzed Chinese observers.

It is in the US' domestic interests to militarily aid Israel, said Li Weijian, a research fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. "Supporting Israel is politically correct in the US, a country with more than 6 million people of Jewish heritage, many of whom make up the core of the US' political and public opinion power, with positions in major government departments and media outlets," Li told the Global Times.

"Biden has announced his reelection bid for 2024 presidential elections. Aiding Israel at this moment can bring him more domestic support," Li said.

Biden is counting on successfully brokering the normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations to boost his performance in the Middle East before the presidential elections in 2024, said Niu Xinchun, a research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing.

However, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas "may not only sink the deal, but also likely to deal a heavy blow to Biden's performance in the election," Niu told the Global Times.

After the conflict broke out, some lawmakers in the US urged Biden to communicate that Israel's response to Hamas' attack must limit harm to civilians and adhere to international law. "We write to express our concerns regarding the unfolding humanitarian situation in Gaza," read the letter to Biden and Blinken, signed by 55 lawmakers.

The letter listed five requests to the Biden administration, including putting pressure on Israel to adhere to international law and helping set up a humanitarian corridor, reported The Hill on October 13.

The US' one-sided military aid has only served to heightened tensions. Worse still, due to the lack of supervision, US aid to Israel is not transparent enough and is suspected of abetting war crimes, warned observers.

There has been one US politician who caused great controversy due to his Israeli military background.

Brian Mast, a member of the US Congress, with a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reportedly arrived to work on October 13 in the uniform of the Israeli military. "As the only member to serve with both the United States Army and the Israel Defense Forces, I will always stand with Israel," he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that morning.

According to US-based news site Grayzone, Mast previously served in the US military in Afghanistan. He volunteered as a bomb disposal specialist for the Israeli army during its 2014 assault on the Gaza Strip. The assault resulted in the death of 2,202 Palestinians, including 526 children.

"Is it appropriate that someone who has served in a foreign military be allowed to return to the United States and serve on such a sensitive government committee, earning a security clearance along the way?" asked Grayzone.
US 'always be there'

When speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken promised that the US will "always be there" for Israel, the BBC reported on October 12.

Blinken was not mistaken in his assertion. The US indeed has always been there for Israel for more than 70 years, constantly providing the country with weapons, allowing it to maintain the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, and complementing it with advanced surveillance and weapons.

According to a report published by the Congressional ReAccording to a report published by the Congressional Research Service under the US Congress on March 1, 2023, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the US has provided Israel with $158 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.

In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed their third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid, under which the US pledged to provide $38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants plus $5 billion in missile defense appropriations) to Israel, according to the report.

In addition to the $3.8 billion yearly aid as per the MOU, the US also added $98.58 million this year in funding for other cooperative defense and nondefense programs, read the report.

Almost all US bilateral aid to Israel so far has been in the form of military assistance, with some observers noting that the aid is, in fact, a subsidy to the US military industry.

To date, Israel has purchased 50 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in three separate contracts, funded with US assistance, and has received a total of 36. For the fiscal year 2023, the US Congress authorized $520 million for joint US-Israel defense programs (including $500 million for missile defense).

According to the BBC, $1.6 billion of US military aid to Israel since 2011 was for the country's Iron Dome short-range anti-rocket, anti-mortar, and anti-artillery system (intercept range of 2.5 to 43 miles). Developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and originally produced in Israel, the system was first tested in 2011.

As a US pawn in the Middle East, Israel serves the US' geographical and defense industry interests. Their decades of special partnership have a historical background known to the whole world, said Li weijian.

Nonetheless, the US continued to support Israel while avoiding the question of Palestinian statehood. "Such a partiality is very unreasonable," Li said.

"The Israel-Palestine conflict will never be resolved without a solution to the question of Palestinian statehood," Li said. "It's Palestine's right to found a state, and the US should not [have a hand] in it."

But the US' goal maybe is never to help achieve a resolution to any conflict, not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but every other conflict in the world such as that between Russia and Ukraine.

The US' response to conflicts is always to escalate the violence instead of encouraging peace. This is because war brings losses and pains to most countries and regions in the world, but the US is one of the few that can exploit the conflict for sickening profits.

Take a look at the performance of US defense stocks this week. The nearly 9 percent rise in Lockheed Martin's stock on Monday was the biggest for the largest US defense contractor on a non-earnings day since March 2020. Northrop Grumman shares also had their best day since 2020.

On a recent earnings call, executives of US defense giant Lockheed Martin highlighted the Israel and Ukraine conflicts "as potential drivers for increased revenue in the coming years," according to a CNN article on October 18.

The US' military support policy to Israel, as well as to other countries or regions, is always out of realistic consideration and aimed to serve the US' own global strategic needs, experts pointed out.

Instead of contributing to the maintenance of world peace, the US has continued to fuel the escalation and continuation of various conflicts so as to bring fortunes to its military-industrial complex, but it comes at the expense of people's lives. But the approach of relying on wars to get enough orders is dangerous to the world. The world cannot afford to allow them to continue making profits from misfortunes in other countries and regions, experts noted.

The Chinese-built Belgrade-Novi Sad high-speed railway, a section of Hungary-Serbia Railway, a benchmark infrastructure project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), marked its 2nd anniversary on Tuesday.

The railway has transported over 6.83 million people between Serbia's two largest cities since its operation in 2022, which greatly facilitated travel in the region and has become a significant project of international railway cooperation, China Railway said in a press release sent to the Global Times.

The Belgrade-Novi Sad section marks the first time that China-developed train control system and technology were imported to Europe.

A large range of Chinese technology and equipment, such as wireless communication systems, were also used in the railway. The Belgrade-Novi Sad section of the railway is more than 54 percent made-in-China, according to the company.

China Railway said that the construction of the section between Novi Sad and Subotica - another part of Hungary-Serbia Railway - is picking up speed, and will be ready for operation at the end of 2024.

According to the company, the north-south high-speed railway is a double-track electrified railway with a total length of 341.7 kilometers, including 183.1 kilometers in Serbia, with a designed maximum speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and 158.6 kilometers in Hungary, with a designed maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour.

It is a major project to forge high-quality BRI cooperation among China, Hungary and Serbia, a flagship project of the cooperation between China-Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

To date, the majority of CEE countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the BRI with China.
Since 2012, the trade volume between China and CEE countries expanded by 8.1 percent year on year, and bilateral investment has neared $20 billion to date, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

China's cyberspace regulator will conduct a special campaign to crack down on the behavior of discrediting companies and entrepreneurs, the latest move aimed at better serving China's private economy. 

The campaign will focus on rectifying the spread of false and untrue information related to enterprises, deliberately spreading rumors to discredit enterprises and entrepreneurs, and extorting enterprises in the name of "public opinion supervision," according to a notice published by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday.

The regulator also urges website platforms to strengthen the review and management of enterprise-related information, and promptly remind relevant account entities to strictly abide by laws and regulations.

The campaign is in line with China's efforts to boost the development of its private economy. China has long attached great importance to the private sector, encouraging it to play a bigger role in stabilizing growth, market insiders said. 

China should lift some institutional obstacles to further optimize the investment environment for the country's private sector in order to stimulate market vitality for investment, while ensuring domestic firms feel safe investing funds, Yin Yanlin, deputy director of the General Office of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission told the Global Times in an earlier interview. 

The work report of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, last week pledged to accelerate the formation of a law aimed at promoting the development of the private sector, sending a strong signal of lawmakers' commitment to making continuous improvements in the business environment.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed the private investment in fixed assets slipped 0.4 percent in 2023 from the previous year.

The campaign launched by CAC also highlighted that it will regulate content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) on the internet. 

The work specifically includes the identification of AI-generated content, optimization of the business network environment, rectification of the confusion around enterprise-related infringement on private information, cracking down on illegal internet news and information services, as well as rectification of false and vulgar livestreaming content.

In terms of AI, the cyberspace regulatoe urged website platforms to mark AI-generated information and tag fictional content, as well as handle illegal accounts that use generative or synthetic algorithm technology to create rumors and marketing hype.

This year, AI-related industries in China are expected to see significant development, in which the application of generative AI technology is a particular focus, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

"This means it is necessary to improve regulatory policies to ensure the responsible use of AI technologies and protect data privacy," Wang said.
An interim regulation on the management of generative AI services went into effect in August 2023. The CAC said that the move was aimed at promoting the sound development of generative AI and its standard applications, safeguarding national security and social public interests, and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal entities and organizations.

China's first comprehensive AI regulation, named Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services, covers an array of measures aimed at enhancing generative AI technology while establishing basic norms for providers of generative AI services.

Some Indians may truly believe that trade protectionism can help accelerate the localization of smartphone manufacturing in the country, but those people are going to be deeply disappointed by the result.

It was reported by Indian media outlets that there are three big changes that the Indian government wants Chinese smartphone companies to make. First, Chinese brands should have Indian management. Second, they should appoint Indian distributors. Third, they should use local contract manufacturers, according to Business Today, an Indian publication. All three requirements are protectionist measures that will seriously disturb the market order.

People were apparently stunned by Indian media's bluntness in admitting that Chinese companies were being forced to adopt Indian management, distributors, and manufacturers. The situation reflects a rise in trade protectionism in India, under which nobody even feels ashamed in openly talking about protectionist measures. It's a shame, though, for the Indian economy.

In recent years, India has stepped up moves against Chinese smartphone makers after benefiting from their capital and technology. Chinese smartphone producers have been the harder-hit targets of selective enforcement and targeted interference.

Although forced localization measures may give a short-term boost to India's manufacturing sector, it will be like drinking poison to quench one's thirst. In the long run, protectionist measures will seriously undermine the confidence of investors in India's market.

While some Indians have been focusing on nationalism, protectionism and using border disputes as an excuse to suppress Chinese enterprises, less attention has been paid to the real story of Chinese companies' localization process. Chinese smartphone enterprises have never refused to promote localization. On the contrary, they have been adopting a proactive approach to promote localization, hoping their strategy can help them win more customers in the Indian market. For example, The Times of India reported in July 2023 that China's Xiaomi would focus more on retail outlets to revive smartphone sales after years of big bets on e-commerce. This meant that Xiaomi would hire more in-store promoters, creating more jobs in India.

The localization strategies Chinese smartphone enterprises have adopted will benefit the Indian economy. However, despite achievements, they continue to face many challenges that have seriously slowed down their progress in localization. For instance, India's high tariffs have increased production costs. More importantly, a series of challenges, such as a lack of skilled workers and weak industrial infrastructure, constrain the development of India's manufacturing sector.

So, Chinese enterprises may face a dilemma. Intense market competition forces them to localize their business in India to win market share, but it's difficult to promote localization due to the constraints of development.

What India should do now is address the fundamental and structural problems in its economic development and lay a solid foundation for sound and fast manufacturing growth. At the very least, India should provide a fair, non-discriminatory business environment for foreign companies to invest and operate in the country. This will help Chinese companies solve the difficulties encountered in the process of localization and enhance their confidence in the Indian economy. 

However, according to Indian media outlets, the country has taken an unjust stance in ignoring Chinese companies' economic interests: The government has relied on administrative measures to force companies to localize their operations in India. 

Although protectionist measures may bring some benefits in the short term, they cannot fundamentally solve problems and promote localization. Protectionist measures will have serious negative impacts on the economy in the long run.

China has stepped up punishment on capital market crimes including financial fraud, fraudulent IPOs and market manipulation. Financial practices must comply with laws and regulations, executives must be severely punished and underwriters must be held liable for negligence, Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People's Court, said on Friday while delivering a report to the second session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC).

For example, a company listed in National Equities Exchange and Quotations falsely increased revenue by 300 million yuan ($41.74 million) in its stock issuance, under-disclosed bank borrowings by 1 billion yuan, and fraudulently issued additional shares. The court ordered it to compensate investors 49 million yuan, and the company's executives bear up to 100 percent joint and several liability for negligence. Also, the intermediary agency responsible for verification shall bear 20 percent joint liability, Zhang said.

In 2023, the people's courts concluded 3.032 million financial cases, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, according to Zhang. 

Also on Friday, Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) Procurator-general Ying Yong said that the SPP has strictly cracked down on financial crimes, and prevented and resolved financial risks in the past year. 

There were 27,000 people prosecuted for financial fraud and crimes that disrupted financial management order, including 18,000 for fund-raising fraud and illegal absorption of public deposits. 

We prosecuted 346 people for securities crimes such as fraudulent issuance, insider trading, and market manipulation, and jointly safeguarded the security of the capital market and the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium investors, Ying said.

Together with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, we release typical cases to severely crack down on foreign exchange-related crimes. The SPP strengthened anti-money laundering cooperation with other departments and prosecuted 2,971 people for money laundering crimes, a year-on-year increase of 14.9 percent, Ying said.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will strive to improve the quality of listed firms through supervision efforts in key areas such as IPOs and delisting. Furthermore, it will enhance regular supervision efforts on firms after they go public by cracking down on fraud and other violations in accordance with the law, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing told a press conference held Wednesday on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the national legislature.

China's commercial aerospace enterprises were inspired as the Government Work Report vowed to step up the development of commercial spaceflight to foster new growth engines. 

Developing commercial spaceflight was listed among key areas for development of emerging industries in the Government Work Report, which was mentioned again following the Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2023. 

Industry insiders said the Government Work Report underlines the importance and strategic position of the commercial spaceflight industry and builds a foundation for potential policy support for fostering new quality productive forces.

Zhang Changwu, founder and CEO of Chinese private aerospace firm LandSpace, told the Global Times that China's commercial aerospace sector is at a stage of vigorous development, and overall policies, funds, talent and other factors are converging toward this industry.  

From the industry's perspective, competition and opportunities coexist. In the fields of rockets, satellites and the corresponding downstream applications, the degree of commercialization varies, but many market participants have emerged, Zhang said.

The development of commercial aerospace has opened a major window, which determines that at this stage, the industry and enterprises need to be more calm and pragmatic, Zhang said, adding that the nation has systematic guidance and guarantees for commercial aerospace from the policy and resource levels.

In regard to the government's pledge to develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace as noted in the Government Work Report, Xia Dongkun, vice president of the Beijing-based private aerospace enterprise firm Galactic Energy, told the Global Times that developing new productivity in the field of commercial aerospace can effectively promote the continuous innovation and breakthrough of new technologies, promote the improvement and optimization of the commercial aerospace industry chain, and create more development space and opportunities for commercial aerospace enterprises.

Xia called for industry efforts to strengthen innovation and production efficiency to compete with global leading commercial aerospace companies such as SpaceX, generating a force for economic growth. 

On January 11, the world's mightiest solid carrier rocket, Gravity-1, developed by Chinese aerospace firm Orienspace, blasted off from a space port in East China's Shandong Province, making the company the sixth commercial aerospace firm in China to have sent a satellite into orbit. 

In 2023, domestic private rocket companies made 13 launches and successfully entered orbit 12 times, setting new records in the eight years of China's commercial aerospace development, according to media reports. 

China's National Development and Reform Commission, the economic planner, in 2015 launched a medium- and long-term development plan for the civilian aerospace infrastructure, which aimed to build an advanced world-spanning infrastructure system during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).

Since 2015, the size of China's commercial aerospace market has quickly expanded. Data from analysis organization iiMedia Research Institute showed that the market is expected to reach 2.3 trillion yuan ($319.47 billion) in 2024 from 376.42 billion yuan in 2015.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp said in a blue book released on February 26 that 2024 will be a critical year for China's aerospace development as about 100 launch missions will take place this year.

Also, China's first commercial aerospace launch site in South China's Hainan Province is expected to host its first rocket launch in the first half of 2024.

China's monetary policymakers have a rich toolbox and ample options, and there is still further room to slash the reserve requirement ratio (RRR), Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference during the ongoing second session of the 14th National People's Congress, Pan said that the average RRR of China's banking industry, which is the proportion of money that lenders must hold as reserves, remains at 7 percent currently and there's room to cut it further.

Pan said that the PBC will pay more attention to striking a balance between the short term and the long term, between seeking steady growth and preventing risks, and between internal equilibrium and external equilibrium in its monetary policy regulation.

The PBC will also strengthen counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments while focusing on boosting market confidence and stabilizing expectations and prices to create a favorable monetary and financial environment for the economy's operations and development.

The considerations outlined by Pan underscore the resilience of China's monetary policy with further room to respond to unexpected situations, Sun Lijian, director of the Financial Research Center at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

China's high-quality deployment targeting investment has created various channels for implementing the country's monetary policy and broad scope for fiscal policy to take effect, Sun said. He added that the utilization of monetary policy for supporting fiscal policy and the real economy through the financial sector will be a major focal point for boosting domestic demand.

Sun noted that implementing a flexible and appropriate monetary policy to ensure adequate liquidity will help tackle external challenges amid the current complex global environment, which may lead to unstable investment flows, stressing the significance of adapting structural monetary policy instruments for uncertainties.

Pan said that the Chinese central bank will utilize comprehensive monetary policy tools to achieve targets, such as maintaining a reasonable level of liquidity.

In 2023, the PBC lowered the RRR twice by 0.25 percentage points each time. It cut the RRR by 0.5 percentage points in February this year, which provided 1 trillion yuan ($138.9 billion) of long-term liquidity to the market, Pan said.

In addition to maintaining reasonable growth, Pan said that the PBC will continuously lower the cost of social financing in a steady manner. The central bank will approach maintaining price stability and promoting a moderate price rebound as significant considerations for its future monetary policy, while considering the soundness of banks' balance sheets, Pan noted.

Pan said that the central bank cut interest rates twice in 2023 and guided major banks to lower deposit rates while making a cut of 0.25 percentage points for the five-year loan prime rate (LPR) in February, as these measures will firmly contribute to lower financing costs and supporting investment and consumption.

The RRR and LPR cuts indicate a significant increase in monetary policy support for the economy, which helps accelerate the recovery and boost market confidence in the improvement of economic growth and corporate profits, Chang Haizhong, executive director of corporates at Fitch Bohua, said in statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

Chang expects that the LPR will be lowered twice more this year by a total of 20 basis points, and the RRR for financial institutions will continue to decrease, too.

China should implement a prudent monetary policy in a flexible, appropriate, targeted and effective way, and should improve the monetary policy transmission mechanism to prevent funds from sitting idle or simply circulating within the financial sector, according to China's 2024 Government Work Report, which was delivered on Tuesday.

The central bank will further increase the efficiency of monetary policy in promoting economic restructuring and maintaining the exchange rate at a reasonable and stable equilibrium level, Pan said.

Pan said the main participants in the foreign exchange market have become more mature with a growing number of business entities using exchange rate hedging tools and the yuan for cross-border settlement, as the fundamentals of China's economy continue to rebound and improve.

As of February, the yuan's share in cross-border payments for merchandise trade in China reached 30 percent, according to Pan.

China’s securities regulator vows to protect small investors' interests, strengthen market regulation

The 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, kicked off its second session on Monday, marking the start of the annual two sessions. The second session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, is set to open on Tuesday.

This year's political gatherings carry extra weight for the Chinese economy, as 2024 will be a crucial year for the realization of the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), and the new government is set to submit its Government Work Report to the NPC annual session for deliberation for the first time.

The session usually reviews past achievements and sets development targets for the current year and beyond.

At a time when mainstream Western media outlets are flooded with reports of China grappling with various difficulties - deflation, a property crisis, mounting debt burdens and a foreign capital exodus - the two sessions will serve as a crucial window for the world to observe the country's economic development and understand its policy direction for the year ahead, which Western media outlets said investors are watching closely for signals of a "bazooka-like stimulus." 

It's not unusual to see Western media outlets run bearish reports badmouthing the Chinese economy around the major political event every year. For instance, a report published by the Financial Times on February 27, 2023, was headlined "The implications of China's mid-income trap," while CNN ran an article entitled "China's economy had a surprisingly good start to the year, but it may not last" in March 2022.

Yet, China still accomplished its 2023 GDP growth target despite downward pressure and challenges, and the underlying trends of a rebound in the economy and long-term growth remain unchanged. Such economic fundamentals further prove that the ill-intentioned "China collapse" theory cannot withstand the test of time.

Why have Western predictions about a hard landing for the Chinese economy never come true? The key lies in the inability to understand that China's economic development has its own rhythm and policy direction, which will not be influenced by Western hype. The reason why the two sessions are of great importance to China's economy is not only because of the GDP target issued during the meetings, but also because of the policy direction set for achieving stable economic development in the year ahead.

There is no denying that China's GDP target has been the focus of world attention, which is not surprising given its huge economic size and important implications for the global economy. The Chinese government has always stressed the importance of the quality of economic development, rather than just the growth rate, but GDP, as a major measure of a country's economic strength, is still one of the most important economic metrics in China. 

It is true that China's economic growth has slowed in recent years amid unprecedented and complicated domestic and external market challenges. This is mainly because the economy is undergoing a period of adjustment and transformation. Despite the difficulties and downward pressure, China is still on a solid footing and its GDP growth rate remains relatively fast among the world's major economies. 

If anything, China's consistent economic performance over the years is the best proof that it has the ability to transform its economy while maintaining growth momentum.

During China's two sessions, much attention is often paid to the country's GDP growth target. However, it is crucial to look beyond mere numbers and understand the implications of new policies and measures to be implemented by the Chinese government to address economic challenges. Because the policy direction not only promises positive influence on China's economic prospects, but also presents opportunities in the country's future development.

The Chinese economy is resilient, has huge potential and vitality and its growth momentum will continue to strengthen and lead to a bright future, according to a spokesperson for the Second Session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Economic issues have been a focal point for political advisors ahead of the gathering, and it is the opinion of all political advisors that in 2023 the Chinese economy withstood the external pressure and overcome internal difficulties, and the economy has been on a general recovery track, according to Liu Jieyi, spokesperson for the second session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee.

There is a good foundation and favorable conditions for promoting high-quality development and the long-term positive economic trend will continue to be consolidated and strengthened, Liu said, responding to a question about the current status of the Chinese economy.

Solid progress has been made in achieving major social and economic growth targets, high-quality development and Chinese way of modernization in 2023, Liu said.

The CPPCC held quarterly seminars on the country's macroeconomic situation and in-depth consultations on the stable operation of the overall economy, with topics ranging from fiscal, monetary, employment and headline economic policies, and provide suggestions and strategies to stabilize market expectations and boost investor confidence, according to Liu.

Biweekly consultations meetings were held on fostering the high-quality development across the financial sector and promote the stable and sound development of the property sector and field trips were made to promote the high-quality development of the private economy, strengthen the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, and improve the resilience and safety level of the industrial and supply chains.

The CPPCC also arranged study trips to small and medium-sized banks to help tackle the risks of smaller financial institutions and provide advice on implementing the task mapped by during the Central Economic Work Conference held in December.

Its suggestions on fostering new-quality productive forces were highly valued and in many cases adopted by relevant government departments, Liu said.

The second session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC will begin on March 4.

China's economy grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in 2023, finishing above last year's official GDP target of around 5 percent, and underscoring the resilience and potential of the Chinese economy in the post-COVID-19 era.