00:00President Xi attended the opening session of the CPPCC alongside other party leaders and over 2,000 CPPCC delegates from all over China.
00:09Now the main political advisory body to the government presented its work over the last year,
00:14highlighting the consultative nature of that work and the wide ranges of voices that brought their concerns to the table.
00:20That included over 5,000 proposals to which 99% received a response.
00:25Now before the session opened, there was a press conference from the NPC, the National People's Congress,
00:30that's the top legislature in China, with a spokesperson, Mr. Luo Xinjian.
00:35Mr. Luo emphasized that China's economy was resilient with a supersized market and complete industrial system
00:41with sufficient room for maneuver in the face of various risks and challenges.
00:45Now he said China stands at a critical juncture where new growth drivers are taking the place of old ones,
00:51and he highlighted the field of technology.
00:53He said that DeepSeek's recent artificial intelligence breakthroughs were representing major progress
00:59and the rise of Chinese companies in AI.
01:01He said this contributes to Chinese creativity throughout the world.
01:05Now Mr. Luo highlighted that DeepSeek's inclusive and innovative approach in allowing open source access to its models was integral.
01:13And he said this was a sign of China's open and sharing approach to AI,
01:16and that the country was ready to work with countries all over the world in the healthy development of AI
01:21to improve the well-being of people all over the world.
01:24Now promoting the private sector in law was also a focus of the press conference.
01:28Mr. Luo said that the private sector has thrived as an integral part of China's socialist market economy.
01:35He referenced the meeting on February 17th with President Xi and leaders from private sector tech companies.
01:41He said improving the development environment of the private sector
01:46and promoting the health and high quality development of the private sector was critical to China's economic development.
01:52Now the press conference room as we were inside there was absolutely packed.
01:56There were people in fact in an overflow room.
01:58They were really keen to hear about China's relationship with the new Trump administration.
02:03Now Mr. Luo said that both countries, the US and China, were committed to bettering the lives of their citizens.
02:09He said China and the US have seen their trade grow 200-fold,
02:13and that history suggests the two countries have more to benefit from in cooperating rather than in the confrontation.
02:20He said that sound and steady development of relations is in both countries' interests,
02:24and that China though would not accept pressuring or threats from the US,
02:28and that he hoped the two countries will work together to return to dialogue and consultation on important issues including trade.
02:35He also emphasized China's commitment to maintaining a positive relationship with the EU, with Europe,
02:41especially in this year which marks 50 years of official relations between China and the EU, official diplomatic relations.
02:48And he said that the EU-China relationship would not be changed by any relationship with any other country, and that included the US.
02:56China-EU relations are not targeted at, dependent on, nor subject to any third party.
03:06China is willing to work with the EU to implement the important consensus reached by their leaders,
03:11strengthen cooperation across various fields, and jointly address global challenges, and oppose unilateralism and protectionism.
03:20China is willing to promote the positive development of China-EU relations, and provide more stability and certainty for the world.
03:28Tomorrow will be the opening of the NPC session, and we are looking forward to Premier Li's work report,
03:34and he will also present the highly anticipated GDP and growth target for 2025, which is widely expected to remain at 5%.
03:41Jen Kobsegg, CGTN, Beijing.
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