00:00Renewal of the tariff battle definitely puts China's growth priority in focus and its push to rebalance the economy towards
00:09consumption.
00:09Based on what we have heard from the two sessions so far, do you think it's bold enough to truly
00:15have people feel that tangible impact that their incomes are increasing, that they can be willing to go out and
00:21spend more?
00:22You know, let me put this into a little bit of perspective. From the two sessions, I think there are
00:31two things going on in terms of growth.
00:34Number one is there is a national target of annual growth of 4.5 to 5 percent, which is set
00:40in a reasonable, pragmatic range.
00:42Now, to get there, it's not easy given the enormous size of Chinese economy. To get there, the approach is
00:50to upgrade consumption.
00:52Now, as you mentioned, Mimin, there is difficulty. People worry about, you know, people don't have enough income or they
01:00are reluctant to consume.
01:02What I can tell you is the government is committed. OK, we have a bill toolbox, a big toolbox of
01:10policy interventions, including physical subsidies, including monetary policies.
01:17And we're also increasing the minimum wage and minimum pension for a large population of China.
01:24So if you ask me, I'm positive and confident. And I know everybody is committed to it. It's not easy,
01:31though.
01:32Yeah, it's certainly not easy. And I'm curious because we have seen China miss the inflation target over the past
01:38number of years.
01:39The focus has been very much on hitting the economic growth target. To what extent should we take seriously the
01:45government's intention to hit that 2 percent inflation target this year?
01:48I would take it very, very seriously. You know, the purpose of the two sessions is, you know, we have
01:56all the leaders, all the departments are sitting together to have a consensus where the country need to be. Right.
02:04And it is also broadcast to the whole public. That is what government is committed to do.
02:10So far, I have to say, I'm relatively pretty confident in the, you know, the goals that the government has
02:17set so far.
02:18They they they are very persistent and consistent with their targets.
02:23We also got the export and trade data earlier this week, and I was honestly honestly very surprised by it.
02:30Yeah. Do you think that is like a short term blip or is this going to set the pace for
02:35trade in the future?
02:36And at the same time, this sort of bolster Trump's argument that China is over relying on exports.
02:42Do you think that's fair?
02:43I'm very glad you raised this question, because when I look at the media coverage and the work reports from
02:51the two sessions,
02:52I have to mention that now we are achieving a balance of imports and exports.
03:00Let's start from exports. We have been doing very well. Right.
03:03For many, many, many, many, many years. And we have a lot of, you know, services, products, exports.
03:11So it's not I wouldn't think that's a short term blip. We're doing pretty well.
03:15But then on the other hand, two sessions this time emphasize we want to increase imports.
03:22Why increase imports? Because we want to reach a balance.
03:26Now, if we want to relate to the previous topic we mentioned about consumption.
03:31If we have a high quality consumption, upgrade the consumption, we need imports.
03:36And this is also another way to get China involved in a global chain and or the global trade.
03:42So this time we're doing fine with exports. We are also putting more emphasis on increasing imports.
03:50But right now, given what we are seeing in the Middle East and the Iran war, bringing a lot of
03:55volatility and energy prices.
03:57How what steps would China take to protect against those energy volatility, but also the disruption in trade flows as
04:05well?
04:05Mm hmm. Very good. You know, this is what everybody care about for the past 10 days.
04:10Let's look at this from a broader point of view.
04:14You can see for the global markets, the stock go down. Right.
04:18And the volatility increase commodity is increasing and dollar is challenged.
04:23Now, if you look at the neighboring countries like South Korea, if you look at South to Southeast Asia,
04:30we're going through negative news. Right.
04:33A lot of stock market index went down a lot.
04:36Now, if you look at China, let's see you ask about commodity price.
04:40But let's look at broadly the overall capital market reaction to the shocks, negative shocks.
04:48And we have to agree it's a negative shock.
04:50The market went down, but then it recovered. Volatility has been stable.
04:54So China is a place that offer some stability of decreased volatility at this point.
05:03of time in terms of commodity price. We saw price went up and down and up.
05:09You know, a lot of volatility doesn't matter whether it's crude oil or gold or silver or other things.
05:14You know, when there is tension in geopolitical environment, commodity price will increase.
05:20Now, China is connected to the global market. We will go in.
05:23We will have those shocks, negative shocks. But I think we, you know, with our long term planning
05:31of industrial policy and with our reserve on hand, you know, you asked me, how are we going to do
05:38it?
05:38First, are we going to stay confident?
05:40First, are we going to stay confident? And we have very strong confidence in our government.
05:44And so far, I don't see any signs of slowing down in the progress.
05:50I also see, you know, some commodity prices going up in China, some commodity related company
05:56stock going up, but I don't think it's going to be crazy.
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