Xi warns of rising risks as party charts course for five years

Chinese President Xi Jinping, commenting on the ruling Communist Party’s recommendations for the next five years, said on Tuesday that the country faces a significant increase in risks, reported Reuters.

Xi and the Central Committee, the largest of the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making bodies, concluded a four-day meeting on economic and social policy goals for the next five years last month, said Reuters.

“At present and over the next phase, China is prone to all kinds of contradictions and risks, and the various risk factors, both foreseeable and unforeseeable, have increased significantly,” Xi was quoted by the Xinhua state news agency as saying.

Rather than setting a numerical goal to double GDP or per capita income by 2035, China will prioritize optimizing economic structure and development quality, Xi said. However, reaching such goals is “entirely possible”, he said, adding that China was set to declare it has achieved the goal of turning the country into a moderately prosperous society in the first half of 2021.