China's Two Sessions Close Today, With Full Focus on AI and Semiconductors in Era of Low Growth

[Financial News] China's biggest annual political event, China’s Two Sessions, came to an end on the 12th with the closing of the National People's Congress (NPC).
The 4th session of the 14th NPC is holding its closing ceremony on the afternoon of the same day at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, wrapping up the schedule that began on the 5th. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top political advisory body, opened on the 4th and concluded the previous day.
This year’s Two Sessions drew attention as a venue where China laid out its economic growth strategy and industrial policy direction. Beijing set its 2024 economic growth target at 4.5–5%. Excluding 2020, when no target was announced due to COVID-19, this is the lowest goal since 1991.
Instead, the Chinese government unveiled plans to push an economic restructuring centered on emerging industries such as semiconductors, aerospace, biopharmaceuticals, and smart robots. China has set a goal of expanding the output of these new industries to more than 10 trillion yuan by 2030.
Future sectors including quantum technology, sixth-generation (6G) mobile communications, brain–computer interfaces, and embodied intelligence were also identified as strategic growth areas. Through its "AI Plus Initiative," the government also intends to expand the size of the artificial intelligence industry to the 10-trillion-yuan level.
China aims, through these industrial policies, to double per capita gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035 compared with 2020, thereby reaching the level of a moderately developed country.
The defense budget was set at 1.9096 trillion yuan. This represents an increase of about 7% from the previous year, marking the fifth consecutive year that China has maintained defense spending growth of around 7%.
In foreign policy, Beijing also appeared to calibrate the intensity of its confrontation with the United States. Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Foreign Minister, said at an NPC press conference regarding the war involving Iran that it was "a war that must not happen" and urged an end to military actions.
However, China maintained a hard-line stance on Japan and Taiwan. Targeting remarks by Japanese politicians about Taiwan, Wang stressed that "the Taiwan question is China’s internal affair."
The fallout from the recent purge within the military was also visible during this year’s Two Sessions. The Central Military Commission (CMC) has effectively been reduced from a seven-member body to a structure centered on two figures: President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin.
During a meeting of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) delegation held on the sidelines of the Two Sessions, Xi warned, "The military is an organization that holds guns, and therefore there must not be anyone who harbors different intentions toward the Party."

km@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-min Reporter