Beijing: While much of the world’s attention is on the Iran war, that hasn’t stopped China from moving ahead with national priorities with global repercussions.
Not that China doesn’t care about the war and its impact on energy supplies and geopolitics. But for the world’s second largest economy, its growing rivalry with the United States revolves around a different battle: the development of the cutting-edge technologies shaping the 21st century.
That message came through in a five-year plan formally endorsed Thursday by the National People’s Congress at the end of its annual meeting, the nation’s biggest political event of the year.
If anything, China is doubling down on a push to transform its economy and be at the forefront of technology. State media described China’s determination to stay the course on economic development as a force for stability in an uncertain world.
“A stable and developing China injects more stability and certainty into a world fraught with change and turbulence,” the official
People’s Daily newspaper said in a front-page column on Wednesday. Other state-media echoed that view.
The commentaries and official statements didn’t mention U.S. President Donald Trump, whose tariffs and use of military force from Venezuela to Iran are shaking up the global order that has governed international relations in the post-World War II era.
China publicly defends that system, while calling for making it more equitable to reflect the interests of developing countries as well
as rich ones.