China on Wednesday set an annual growth target of around five percent, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as an escalating trade war with the United States hit Beijing's exports.
Beijing also announced a rare hike in fiscal funding, allowing its budget deficit to reach four percent this year as it battles stuttering employment for young people, stubbornly low consumer demand and a persistent property sector debt crisis, reported AFP.
The headline growth figure announced by Premier Li Qiang at an annual Communist Party conclave was broadly in line with an AFP survey of analysts, though experts say it is ambitious considering the scale of the country's economic challenges.
Under the plans, some 12 million new jobs will be created in Chinese cities as Beijing pushes for two percent inflation this year.
A government work report vowed to make domestic demand the "main engine and anchor" of growth, adding that Beijing should "move faster to address inadequate domestic demand, particularly insufficient consumption".
And in a rare move, Li said China would hike its fiscal deficit by one percentage point, something that analysts have said will give Beijing more latitude to tackle its economic slowdown.
Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said Beijing's growth target would be "tough but possible".
He said low consumption was a "confidence issue", adding that "if people are, in their own calculations, worried about spending -- especially on big-ticket items -- it is far harder to address".
Major Asian markets traded up on Wednesday, reversing their losses a day after US President Donald Trump went ahead with imposing more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports following a similar move last month.
US tariffs are expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade between the world's two largest economies.
"Internationally, changes unseen in a century are unfolding across the world at a faster pace," the government work report said.
"Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise," it warned.
And "domestically, the foundation for China's sustained economic recovery and growth is not strong enough," added the report.
Fight to the 'bitter end'
Chinese exports reached record levels last year.
But as thousands of delegates congregated in Beijing's opulent Great Hall of the People for the opening session of the National People's Congress, the second of China's "Two Sessions" political meetings this week, sentiments were clouded by a broadening trade war under Trump.
Beijing on Tuesday announced its own measures in retaliation for Washington's latest tariff hike -- and vowed it would fight a trade war to the "bitter end".
The moves will see China impose levies of up to 15 percent on a range of US agricultural products including soybeans, pork and wheat starting from early next week.
Beijing's countermeasures represent a "relatively muted response" in comparison to Trump's all-encompassing tariffs, wrote Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING.
"The retaliation could have been a lot stronger, and with every further escalation the risks are also rising for a stronger response," he added.
Analysts say authorities may announce further plans this week to boost the economy -- adding to a string of aggressive support measures announced late last year.
More help needed
Also on Wednesday, China disclosed a 7.2 percent rise in defense spending in 2025, as Beijing rapidly modernizes its armed forces in the face of regional tensions and strategic competition with the US.
Geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington are set to intensify this year, analysts say.
The status of self-governed Taiwan -- claimed by China as part of its sovereign territory -- is chief among the sources of friction.
The defense spending will finance Beijing's frequent dispatches of military aircraft around Taiwan, intended to put pressure on authorities in the democratic island.
It also came after Trump proposed a coordinated halving of the military budgets of the United States, Russia and China.
China has not agreed to such a move, with a foreign ministry spokesperson suggesting last month that any reductions in military expenditure should be conducted by Washington first.
