NPC OPENS, NO GROWTH TARGET SET FOR 2020

China has not set a GDP growth target for this year and will take a slew of forceful financial measures this year to shore up the economy, which has been dragged down by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered to the opening of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress on Friday.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other leaders are attending the meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The Premier acknowledged that the world's second-largest economy faces "difficult factors" and "uncertainties" due to the novel coronavirus, which has sharply reduced global demand and dampened economic activities.

"We have not set a specific target for economic growth this year. This is because our country will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development due to the great uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment," he said.

The Premier said the nation will focus on "ensuring stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas".

China's policy of "ensuring stability on the six fronts" refers to stabilizing employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, investment and expectations; its policy of "security in the six areas" refers to safeguarding employment, people's livelihoods, the development of market entities, food and energy security, the stable operation of industrial and supply chains, and the smooth functioning of society.

By implementing those policies, "we will be able to keep the fundamentals of the economy stable", Li said.

The country will pursue a prudent monetary policy in a more flexible and appropriate way, the Premier said.

"We will use a variety of tools such as required reserve ratio reductions, interest rate cuts, and re-lending to enable the M2 money supply and aggregate financing to grow at notably higher rates than last year."

On the fiscal front, the deficit-to-GDP ratio this year is projected at more than 3.6 percent, with a deficit increase of 1 trillion yuan ($140.6 billion) over last year, the Premier said.

Taxes and fees will continue to be cut to aid the corporate sector, he said.

Reductions of VAT rates and the share of employees' basic old-age insurance paid by enterprises will be continued, he added.

The payment of corporate income taxes by micro and small businesses and self-employed individuals will be postponed to next year.

"We expect that these measures will see additional savings of more than 2.5 trillion yuan for enterprises throughout the year," he said.

The country also plans to create more than 9 million new urban jobs, keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate at around 6 percent, and keep the consumer inflation level at around 3.5 percent, according to the Government Work Report.

China's year-on-year GDP growth came in at 6.1 percent in 2019, contributing to about 30 percent of growth of the world economy. But it slumped to a negative 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

CHINA BOOSTS DEFENSE BUDGET BY 6.6%, LOWEST IN OVER 30 YEARS

China's annual defense budget for the fiscal year of 2020 recorded the lowest growth rate in more than 30 years, according to a draft budget report released on Friday.

The central government proposed the annual defense budget at about 1.27 trillion yuan ($178 billion), a 6.6 percent raise year-on-year, showed figures from the report prepared by the Ministry of Finance and distributed at the opening meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

The budget's growth rate is lower than since the fiscal 1988, which had a 3.81 percent proposed increase rate in the defense budget.

In fiscal 2019, China planned to raise the defense budget by 7.5 percent, setting the military expenditure at nearly 1.19 trillion yuan. All of the budgeted money has been utilized, the report said.

The report is to be reviewed and discussed by NPC deputies.

At a news conference on Thursday night in Beijing, Zhang Yesui, spokesman for the annual NPC meeting, said China's military spending is transparent.

China's defense policy is defensive in nature and its defense spending is proportionate and restrained in terms of total size, per capita expenditure and proportion of GDP, he said.

CHINA TO ENSURE FOOD SUPPLY FOR 1.4B PEOPLE THROUGH OWN EFFORTS

It is imperative and well within China's ability to ensure the food supply for 1.4 billion Chinese people through the country's own efforts, according to a government work report submitted to the national legislature for deliberation on Friday.

To bolster agricultural production, the country will increase its area of high-standard cropland by 80 million mu (5.33 million hectares), the report said.

CHINESE LAWMAKERS DELIBERATE DRAFT CIVIL CODE

Chinese lawmakers started deliberating a draft civil code Friday at the annual session of the country's national legislature.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), read an explanatory document on the draft civil code to deputies attending the third session of the 13th NPC.

DRAFT DECISION ON HK NATIONAL SECURITY LEGISLATION SUBMITTED TO NPC

A draft decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security was submitted to China's national legislature for deliberation on Friday.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) explained the draft decision to the third session of the 13th NPC, which runs from May 22 to 28.

Since the return of Hong Kong to the motherland, China has been firmly implementing the principles of "one country, two systems," "the people of Hong Kong governing Hong Kong," and a high degree of autonomy, Wang said.

The practice of "one country, two systems" has achieved unprecedented success in Hong Kong, he said.

But the increasingly notable national security risks in the HKSAR have become a prominent problem, the vice chairman said, citing activities that have seriously challenged the bottom line of the "one country, two systems" principle, harmed the rule of law, and threatened national sovereignty, security and development interests.

Law-based and forceful measures must be taken to prevent, stop and punish such activities, he noted.

Article 23 of the Basic Law of the HKSAR stipulates that the HKSAR shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the HKSAR, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the HKSAR from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.

More than 20 years after Hong Kong's return, however, relevant laws are yet to materialize due to the sabotage and obstruction by those trying to sow trouble in Hong Kong and China at large, as well as external hostile forces, Wang said.

Considering Hong Kong's situation at present, efforts must be made at the state-level to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security, to change the long-term "defenseless" status in the field of national security, Wang said.

This will advance the institutional building to safeguard national security on the course of China's Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, he said.

This will also strengthen the work of safeguarding national security and ensure the steady and enduring growth of the cause of "one country, two systems", he added.

COPYRIGHT REVISIONS LAUDED, UP TO A POINT

National legislators and experts on intellectual property rights have welcomed stronger protection of online copyrights and harsher punishments for copycats in newly released draft amendments to existing law while suggesting that some new types of infringements in cyberspace be further studied.

"The current Chinese Copyright Law has neither caught up with economic, technological and cultural growth nor solved new problems in the industry," said Li Rui, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. "So, it's urgent and necessary to revise the law."

Li's remarks follow the advice of the NPC Standing Committee, the country's top legislature, which deliberated on draft revisions to the law late last month.

The current law, which has been in effect for 30 years, had played an important role in encouraging innovation and protecting copyrights, Li said, "but it cannot give more legal support to new types of online copyrights, let alone end related disputes, even though it was amended in 2001 and 2010".

Statistics released by the China Internet Network Information Center last month showed that there were 904 million internet users across the country by March, up 75.08 million compared with the end of 2018.

While witnessing a significant rise in the number of netizens, the nation is also seeing a big increase of IP-related conflicts online, especially copyright disputes.

From Sept 9, 2018, to March 31, for example, the Beijing Internet Court filed 42,121 cases on online IP rights, more than 99 percent of which involved online copyright issues.

"Online copyrights need stronger and quicker protection because more works, including novels, pictures and videos, are emerging online, and because of how fast information spreads on the internet," said Kang Lixia, a lawyer specializing in IP-related disputes at Beijing Conzen Law Firm.

"If the online infringement cannot be stopped in a timely manner, the works' creators will face greater economic losses, as collecting evidence online for them is also a big challenge," she said, adding that highlighting protections for online copyrights in the latest draft is "essential and urgent".

The draft's full text has been published on the website of the NPC Standing Committee, which is soliciting opinions from the public and authorities.

Kang also applauded the increased punishments in the draft, saying they posed a bigger threat to copyright violators and a more effective measure against piracy.

The draft stipulates that if a copyright owner clarifies the cost of using his or her works, people using the works without paying or those deliberately infringing on the copyright will be ordered to pay five times the cost in compensation.

SCALING OF HIGHEST MOUNTAIN POSTPONED

A Chinese mountaineering team has postponed its plan to reach the peak of Mount Qomolangma on Friday due to bad weather conditions.

Wang Yongfeng, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport's Mountaineering Administrative Center, said the climbers had decided to retreat to a camp at an altitude of 6,500 meters.

The team is on a mission to conduct surveys at the summit to accurately measure the height of Mount Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West.

Wang said the rope-fixing team left a camp at an elevation of 7,790 meters at about 2 am Thursday and was blocked by deep snow and falling rocks when they climbed to an altitude of about 8,000 meters. The team members were physically exhausted and decided to withdraw to the camp.

At about 8 am, they set out again but were forced to retreat for a second time by continuous snowfall and the risk of avalanches. The team said that the ropes laid on May 12 heading toward a site 8,600 meters above sea level were unable to be found due to the strong winds and heavy snowfall on the mountain in recent days.

The weather window for the next summit attempt is still uncertain, Wang added.

Located on the China-Nepal border, Mount Qomolangma is the world's highest peak. It's northern part is located in Shigatse, in the Tibet autonomous region.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chinese surveyors have conducted six rounds of measurements and scientific research on Mount Qomolangma and released the height of the peak twice. It was 8,848.13 meters in 1975 and 8,844.43 meters in 2005.

When the Chinese mountaineering team scaled Mount Qomolangma in 1975, no professional surveyors reached the top. But the mountaineers took a survey marker to the summit, which helped surveyors from nine observation stations near the mountain to calculate its height.

HUBEI DEPUTIES EAGER TO DISCUSS HEALTH TOPICS

Compared with legislators from other parts of China, National People's Congress deputies from Hubei, the province hit hardest by the novel coronavirus, are more eager to bring their views about public health to the NPC session.

As one of a handful of reporters allowed to enter the hotel of the Hubei delegation, I got the chance of talking with some of the legislators after they arrived in Beijing on Wednesday. Many of their proposals and suggestions are related to epidemic control, as people from Hubei believe they have a deeper understanding of the issue given they were on the front line fighting COVID-19.

The pandemic also exposed holes in the country's response system to major public health emergencies that needed to be fixed urgently, they said.

Lawmakers believe that the annual session of the NPC, which started Friday after China effectively contained the epidemic, is the best platform and the fastest way for them to pass on to the central government the lessons they had learned battling the novel coronavirus.

They said policymakers needed to urgently know what grassroots people required in order to boost the economy.

"There is no time to waste. At the very least, we need to help local businesses survive this year first," said Zhou Hongyu, a deputy from Hubei.

Zhou is not exaggerating. I've witnessed small businesses struggling to survive in Wuhan, Hubei's capital.

From Jan 23 to April 8, Wuhan was placed under lockdown to prevent the virus from spreading. After the lockdown was lifted, I went to Wuhan to see how life was returning to normal in the city.

People there had made great sacrifices, both personally and financially, during the lockdown. However, the aftermath was more severe than I'd imagined. Many small and micro business owners were worried about being unable to pay their rent and having fewer customers.

Ying Yong, Party chief of Hubei, said on Tuesday before the Hubei delegation departed for Beijing, that the province is facing great pressure in economic development and securing people's livelihoods after the epidemic. Although the central and Hubei governments have introduced a series of measures, including tax cuts and rent exemptions, to help local businesses, many NPC deputies said they are looking forward to discussing more practical measures during the upcoming session that can be quickly put in place.

Zhou showed me four versions of the list of proposals and suggestions he had prepared. The number of the proposals and suggestions increased from 20 to 29 because he kept on adding ideas on better preparing China for a major public health event and supporting the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

"We found some articles regarding epidemic control in different laws were inconsistent, which sometimes delayed the speed of the response. Those inconsistencies can only be exposed in circumstances such as the novel coronavirus outbreak. We must fix the holes fast," Zhou said.

The lockdown and other epidemic control measures in Hubei have made it difficult for NPC deputies to conduct field research to draft proposals and suggestions, so many deputies, including Zhou, have become skilled in the use of social media so they can connect with the public.

Zhou said the responses were different from previous years.

"People told me all about their concerns over their businesses or livelihoods instead of telling me about their achievements," he said.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The fewer data needed, the better the information. And an overload of information, that is, anything much beyond what is truly needed, leads to information blackout. It does not enrich, but impoverishes. - Peter F.Drucker