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Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized support for the country's elderly and vulnerable youth in a New Year's speech that acknowledged the plight of some 1.4bn-strong people.
XiHis speech comes after his economic planners have struggled for the past four years to restore consumer confidence or address youth unemployment and slow wage growth.
In a televised speech on Tuesday evening, the 71-year-old leader, speaking in front of the Great Wall, said the issues of employment, income growth, care for the elderly, care for children, education and health care “are always on my mind.” “.
Xi said the July meeting of the Chinese Communist Party sounded a “call for deeper reform”.
“Making people live a happy life is the main thing,” he said. “Each household hopes that children can get a quality education, the elderly can get proper care services, and the youth can get more opportunities for development.”
The Chinese economywhich is the second largest in the world after the US, recorded growth of 4.8 percent in the first nine months of the year, following Beijing's official target of about 5 percent.
Weak sentiments and heightened tensions follow a series of blows, from the pandemic and a multi-year property market slump, to Xi's reassertion of the Communist Party's control over China's biggest business sectors.
Xi on Tuesday repeated a thinly veiled warning about international support for Taiwan. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has not ruled out using force if Taipei rejects the alliance indefinitely.
“Our people on both sides of the Strait are one family. No one can break the ties of blood and our kinship, and no one can stop the history of national unity,” Xi said.
Xi has increased the country's support for high-tech manufacturing and industry, boosting investment in electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors and artificial intelligence, while driving China's production of key technologies.
On Tuesday he highlighted China's progress in technological self-reliance and breakthroughs in areas including computer chips, AI and space exploration.
A series of policy easing measures announced by Beijing since September, including property and stock market support, are seen as a sign that the Xi administration is shifting its focus to domestic demand.
Reflecting that change, the World Bank last week revised its forecast for China's GDP growth next year to a higher range of 0.4 percent to 4.5 percent.
However, China this year has been rocked by a series of murders and stabbings of some experts who blame the rise of social problems. Fan Weiqiu, 62, was last week sentenced to death after being found guilty of driving his car into a crowd in Zhuhai, southern China, in November, leaving at least 35 people dead, the country's worst mass shooting. a decade.
Ahead of a series of national holidays, Beijing has begun urging local governments to increase the distribution of seasonal subsidies to people facing economic hardship, including unemployed youth.
Kelvin Lam, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said while the handouts would not have a significant impact on the wider economy they could maintain social stability and consumption in poor rural areas.
China's economic outlook has been further weakened by strained relations with the US.
Under President Joe Biden the US has restricted China's access to computer chips, clamped down on Chinese investment in the US and increased sanctions on Chinese companies for trading with Russia after the all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier on Tuesday, Xi told Russian leader Vladimir Putin that “strategic coordination” between China and Russia has continued to reach higher levels under their leadership, according to a New Year's message reported by Xinhua, the news agency.
Additional reporting by Wenjie Ding in Beijing, Cheng Leng in Hong Kong and Kathrin Hille in Taipei