No Contradiction’ Between China Hitting Growth Targets And Deepening Reform, Premier Li Says

SHANGHAI — China’s Premier Li Keqiang says it’s "impossible" for the country not to reach its growth target for this year of between 6.5 and 7 percent — and there is “no contradiction” between maintaining growth and deepening structural reforms of China’s economy. He also said delayed plans for a link between the stock markets in Hong Kong and Shenzhen could be implemented this year.

In his annual news conference at the close of China’s legislative session, which approved the country’s new economic plan, Li gave an apparently confident performance, which seemed designed to reassure foreign investors who have been concerned at the nation’s slowing growth rate, stock market volatility and sudden devaluation of its currency last year. Some have also expressed concern that market-oriented reforms are being put on hold as President Xi Jinping pushes a return to more traditional socialist ideology.

With only six questions from international media during the two-hour conference, and questions from domestic media avoiding the most sensitive topics, Li did not have to touch on the fate of the Chinese yuan — still the subject of speculation about further devaluation. But he said China had “passed the stress test and gained good experience” in achieving growth of 6.9 percent last year — in line with a target of “around 7 percent” but the nation’s slowest since 1990. And he insisted there would be “no hard landing” for China’s economy.