A global pandemic, rising inflation and a conflict in Ukraine are just some of the issues impacting policy decisions.

At this year’s opening session of the National People’s Congress, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang outlined the country’s economic priorities for the year. We’ll have more on that later in the program. But we begin with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s virtual press conference on the sidelines of the NPC in Beijing. CGTN’s Li Jianhua has more in this report.

To discuss:

• Martin Jacques is a global affairs commentator and author of the bestseller “When China Rules the World”.
• Sourabh Gupta is a resident senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies. 
• John Gong is an economics professor at the University of International Business and Economics.
• Victor Gao is a current affairs commentator and chair professor at Soochow University.

For more:

China set an economic growth target of around 5.5% for the year, the lowest level in more than a quarter century of economic planning, reflecting heightened domestic and global uncertainties https://t.co/s68VJ82vBi

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 5, 2022

 

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing disapproves of using sanctions as a means to solve problems and rejects unilateral sanctions that are not based on international law. | @ChinaDaily / @asianewsnetwork https://t.co/ROkOYNTlGL

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) March 1, 2022