Premier Li Qiang Urges Policy Push to Meet China's Annual Economic Goals

Premier Li Qiang presided over the 12th plenary meeting of the State Council, calling on government departments to diligently carry out central leadership directives and work toward achieving China's annual economic and social development targets. While noting overall stability and structural progress in the economy, Li acknowledged persistent hurdles, including weak domestic demand, mounting corporate difficulties, and rising external uncertainties. He emphasized the need to leverage existing measures, introduce pragmatic incremental policies, accelerate major infrastructure projects, and mobilize private investment to ensure a solid start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

The State Council's plenary meeting sets the macroeconomic tone for upcoming policy execution. By explicitly acknowledging domestic demand deficits and external risks, the leadership signaled a coordinated effort combining fiscal disbursement, major project rollouts, and private sector incentives to stabilize growth in the second half of the year.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang chaired the 12th plenary meeting of the State Council, urging government bodies to implement decisions made by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and strive to fulfill the country's full-year economic and social development targets, state media reported. According to Xinhua, Li noted that China's economic performance has maintained overall stability with progress, demonstrating new growth momentum, structural optimization, and strong resilience. However, the premier explicitly pointed out existing challenges, stating that insufficient domestic demand remains prominent, difficulties for some industries and enterprises have increased, and external uncertainties are on the rise. To address these pressures, Li called for anchoring development objectives by fully utilizing the efficacy of existing policies while planning and introducing practical, effective incremental policies in a timely manner. He stressed the importance of clearing operational bottlenecks to keep the economy moving toward higher quality and innovation. Li emphasized that this year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan implementation. He instructed departments to advance key initiatives from the outset, focus on major engineering projects, and leverage national planning to guide sector-wide progress. Expanding domestic demand was reaffirmed as a strategic baseline, with Li directing agencies to concentrate resources on extensive industrial chains and large-scale sectors to invigorate internal economic circulation. The meeting highlighted specific priority areas, including accelerating the implementation plan for the 'six networks' infrastructure projects and innovating investment and financing mechanisms to attract private capital. Li also urged coordinating investment in human capital with consumption promotion, speeding up the disbursement of policy-backed funds to generate tangible physical workloads, and extending greater support to private investment in emerging fields, new infrastructure, and consumption upgrades. Additionally, the premier called for stabilizing foreign demand, fostering new pillar and future industries, upgrading traditional manufacturing, safeguarding employment and livelihood baselines, and properly managing risk prevention and workplace safety to harmonize high-quality development with high-level security.