00:01Uncertainty once again dogs the outlook for Chinese leaders as they head into the annual
00:05session of parliament.
00:07Sure, by many metrics, China weathered the tariff barrage from the United States, achieving
00:12its annual growth target last year and finding leverage with rare earths and its own domestic
00:18AI development.
00:19But the Iran situation has thrown the geopolitical outlook into disarray, as the U.S. has for
00:25a second time after Venezuela taken out the leadership of a Chinese ally.
00:30This is going to have a huge impact.
00:32It's opened the Pandora's box for whatever we're going to see in the future because all
00:38the countries are fear of this unilateral approach.
00:42Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi calls the attack on Iran unacceptable, and it's no doubt alarming
00:47to the Chinese military as well, which awaits word of its annual defense budget Thursday
00:52here at the National People's Congress amid an unprecedented purge of top generals.
00:57Now, it's a distraction as well when the task at hand here is really rebalancing and shoring
01:02up the domestic economy and further tariff proofing it by boosting domestic demand ahead of Trump's
01:09highly anticipated or at least planned trip to Beijing at the end of March.
01:13American Manny Menendez has been doing business in China since U.S. diplomatic ties with the
01:19PRC were established in 1979.
01:22President Trump is very transactional, so I think he will come looking for deals.
01:27I think there could be a large Boeing order.
01:30I think there'll be increased in purchase of ag products, for example.
01:34China wants predictability and stability, but both countries want a stable economy.
01:40I'm expecting some really big things.
01:42We remain constructive on China because of like AI adoption and also across different sectors,
01:49not just agentic AI, but into like physical AI as well, like robotics and then also like
01:55semiconductors as well.
01:57We will need to continue to see the policy support from the MPC, whether they will be leaning towards
02:02rebalancing and whether they'll be prompting for like higher quality growth and a focus on tech.
02:08It has to stimulate the economy. The economy is clearly slowed. We have yet to see the first
02:15robin of spring emerge from any of the stimulus that's been announced so far. I think it will
02:20really be closer to May, June before we get a clear pickup in growth, but it will be there.
02:27The premier's growth target Thursday will give a good indication whether or not Beijing shares that
02:34will give a good optimism. Steven Engel, Bloomberg News, Beijing.
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