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China’s NPC raises questions about the economy, defence, new technologies
China’s week-long meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which gathered some 3,000 delegates from the political, business and cultural elite in Beijing, has closed without the customary press conference by the country’s premier.
The annual meeting of the country’s parliament began on March 4 at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, with delegates tasked with approving new laws and political appointments as well as assessing a litany of reports from departments across the government.
Since 1993, proceedings have wrapped with a press conference by the country’s premier but it was announced last week that Li Qiang would not be speaking to journalists.
If he had, he might have been able to give some insight into the legislation NPC delegates approved, including a shift towards “future industries” and a focus on national security.
Here are five key takeaways from this year’s formalities.
Open to AI
Facial recognition scanners at the entrance to the NPC offered delegates an idea of what a “future industries”-focused economy might look like.
Inside, Premier Li Qiang’s Government Work Report detailed how new technologies – from electric vehicles to commercial space flights – could help China’s economy escape the weight of a faltering property market.
“The two sessions clearly conveyed China’s intention to focus on the development of new technology in order to achieve self-sufficiency,” Angela Zhang, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera.
“China is driven by a sense of urgency to catch up with the United States,” said Zhang, who is also the author of High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy.
To meet potential economic growth through new technologies, Zhang told Al Jazeera she believes “the Chinese government will adopt a relatively lenient approach towards regulating new technologies like AI”.
Future Industries
While facial recognition cameras indicate that China could join Israel and the US in the lucrative market of surveillance technology, Bert Hofman, a professor at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, sees a range of ways in which new technologies could help China escape recent economic woes.
While China is “on track” to meet its climate targets by 2060, Hofman says it could potentially see economic benefits from “front-loading” its green transition sooner as has also been argued by Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.
For example, Hofman told Al Jazeera that the government could give “subsidies to households to buy more of the outputs of China’s surging EV [electric vehicle] manufacturing”.
Defence and security
The government did not announce a specific target for spending on its green transition at the NPC.
By contrast, it did announce that defence spending would rise by 7.2 percent in 2024, the same level of increase as in 2023.
A spokesperson explaining the increase said: “China has maintained a comparatively low military expenditure and the nation always sticks to a peaceful development road”.
But references to peace were notably absent from sections of the premier’s work report in its references to Taiwan. Last year’s report called for “advanc[ing] the process of China’s peaceful reunification”, while this year, Li said China would “be firm in advancing the cause of China’s reunification”.
According to Hofman, the increase in China’s military spending announced at the NPC may not result in an increase in real terms.
He told Al Jazeera he is more concerned about the focus on “future industries and the industrial policy that will go into developing them in China” after the focus on this area at this year’s NPC.
Still, China’s military spending has attracted much attention given that other countries are already spending more on defence.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), other countries, including the US, Japan, Australia and South Korea, have increased military spending “driven by a perception of a growing threat from China”.
Beijing’s defence budget has more than doubled since 2015 but, according to William D Hartung of the Quincy Institute, the US continues to outspend China on its military by a substantial margin.
Hartung cites data from SIPRI which he says go beyond China’s official military expenditures to include the “full range of China’s military-related activities”. Even taking this into account, according to the latest SIPRI estimate, US military spending at $877bn was about three times higher than Chinese military spending at $292bn in 2022.
Difficult economic questions
Speaking to delegates, some ministers were relatively frank about the challenges China is facing, especially in the area of economic growth.
Housing Minister Ni Hong was quoted as describing the task of fixing China’s property market as “very difficult”.
The collapse of property developer Evergrande was potentially a touchy subject at the meeting with one journalist reportedly having been questioned about her ties to the company after going through a facial recognition scanner.
China’s target of 5 percent growth for 2024 was seen by some as “ambitious”, although Hofman sees it as relatively realistic if China is able to escape a potential “deflationary spiral”.
He says Beijing has been wary of stimulus tied to the flailing housing market but that there are other ways it could help get more money into people’s hands to help stimulate the economy, such as a recent “very minimal” increase in rural pensions of about 20 Chinese yuan ($2.78) per month.
Delegates at the NPC go through previously agreed documents “almost line by line” meaning there are few, if any, new announcements during official proceedings, said Hofman.
The Financial Times reported that officials from some of China’s indebted state provinces met state bankers on the sidelines of the Congress.
Looking outwards
Without the customary press conference, China removed one of the few avenues open to foreign media trying to understand where China sees itself in the world.
However, while Li did not address the media, Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference last week on the sidelines of the NPC.
The room was full and Wang fielded questions from reporters from publications in countries including Egypt, Russia and the US.
Wang said there had been “some improvement in China-US relations” since Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met in San Francisco last year, after a deterioration of ties as a result of differences over issues from trade to Taiwan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
Asked about China’s relationship with Russia in light of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, he described Beijing and Moscow’s closer relationship as a “strategic choice”, noting that bilateral trade had reached a record $240bn in 2023.
“New opportunities” lay ahead, he added, portraying the two countries’ ties as a “new paradigm” in the relations between big powers.
“Major countries should not seek conflict and the Cold War should not be allowed to come back,” Wang said.
Wang Yi also took questions on Israel’s war on Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire and telling journalists that China would support Palestine’s “full” membership of the United Nations.
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English police are facing mounting scrutiny after officers handcuffed an 18-year-old university student as he bled to death following a fatal stabbing, allegedly after believing the attacker’s false claim that he had been the victim of a racist assault.
The case has sparked outrage across Britain, fueled political debate over policing and prompted calls for the release of body-worn camera footage from the responding officers.
Alan Mendoza, executive director and co-founder of the London-based Henry Jackson Society think tank, told Fox News Digital that the case reflected broader failures in British policing culture. “The killing of Henry Nowak shows how far the rot of political correctness has set into the British policing mentality,” Mendoza said.
“The reflex attitude today appears to be to believe any and every claim that mentions racism,” he added. “It clearly trumped actual murder in this case as a dying Mr. Nowak was arrested on the say-so of his Sikh assailant without any facts being established by the officers attending.”
BRITISH POLICE RELEASE DETAILS ON SUSPECTS AFTER ‘SHOCKING’ TRAIN ATTACK, UPDATE ON VICTIMS
Freshman student Henry Nowak was stabbed many times by Vikram Digwa who used an eight inch ceremonial knife in December 2025. Digwa was found guilty of murder last week. (Hampshire police handout.)
Vickrum Digwa, 23, was convicted Thursday at Southampton Crown Court of murdering Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old finance student at the University of Southampton, during a confrontation on Dec. 3, 2025.
Officers arriving at the chaotic scene initially treated Nowak as the suspect after Digwa allegedly claimed he had been racially abused and attacked. Officers handcuffed Nowak before realizing the severity of his injuries. He later collapsed and died at the scene despite attempts to administer first aid, according to Sky News.
Following the verdict, Hampshire Constabulary publicly apologized and referred the case to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), England and Wales’ police watchdog, for investigation. “I’m sorry that he was handcuffed and arrested in the moments before he lost consciousness,” Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Robert France said in a statement reported by Sky News.
Prosecutors told jurors Digwa stabbed Nowak multiple times using a 21-centimeter blade described in court as a Sikh kirpan-style weapon. Digwa claimed he acted in self-defense after being racially abused, but jurors rejected that argument and found him guilty of murder.
The case has since ignited fierce public debate online and in British media over whether police prioritized allegations of racism over basic investigative and medical procedures.
TEXAS PRESS CONFERENCE IN AUSTIN METCALF KILLING DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS OVER TRACK MEET STABBING
Handout photo issued by Hampshire Police of Vickrum Digwa who has been found guilty at Southampton Crown Court of the murder of university student Henry Nowak, who he stabbed to death with a Sikh kirpan ceremonial knife. Digwa told police a “wicked lie” that he was the victim of a racist attack after he stabbed finance student Henry Nowak, from Chafford Hundred, Essex, five times in the incident in Belmont Road, Southampton, on Dec. 3 2025. Issue date: Thursday, May 28, 2026. (Press Association via AP Images)
Speaking on GB News on Friday, Reform UK Member of Parliament Robert Jenrick called for the release of body-worn camera footage if the Nowak family consents.
“The officers chose to prioritize the accusation of racial abuse over saving the life of this young man,” Jenrick said. “I think that was a terrible mistake.”
Jenrick also criticized what he described as a muted response from Britain’s political establishment compared to reactions following the 2020 death of George Floyd in the United States.
“The Prime Minister says absolutely nothing. The Home Secretary says absolutely nothing.”
The killing has also raised concerns about hostility toward Britain’s Sikh community, which Sikh organizations have sought to distance from the crime.
In a public statement issued following the verdict, Sikh community organizations condemned the killing and stressed that the case should not be viewed as representative of Sikhism.
2 JEWISH MEN STABBED IN LONDON ATTACK CLASSIFIED AS TERRORISM
File of a police car in Derbyshire, England. (Derbyshire Constabulary via Facebook)
“Henry’s life has tragically been cut short by a moment of madness by an individual for which there can be no excuses,” the statement said.
The organizations also acknowledged that “the actions of police officers who handcuffed the victim just before he died” had intensified criticism of police and “unnecessarily stirred up community hatred.”
The statement further emphasized that legal protections allowing Sikhs in Britain to carry ceremonial kirpans for religious purposes do not apply if the blade is used violently.
“We understand in this case the weapon that may have been used was not the normal Kirpan worn by fully practicing Sikhs,” the statement read.
Mendoza stressed that Britain’s Sikh community broadly condemned the murder and supported the investigation.
“It’s legal for Sikhs to carry ceremonial knives in the U.K. but they are almost always tiny ones that religious authorities have ordained are sufficient to fulfil the obligation,” Mendoza told Fox News Digital. “He had one of those, plus his [8 inch] blade.”
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A member of the London Met Police stands guard outside Westminster Abbey. (BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
He also described Digwa as “a weapons nut,” referencing evidence presented during the trial that prosecutors said showed the defendant had a fascination with knives and weapons.
The IOPC investigation into the officers’ actions remains ongoing. Fox News Digital reached out to Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi accuses China of lacking military transparency and stresses the importance of dialogue for regional stability.
Published On 31 May 2026
Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has dismissed claims that Tokyo is pursuing “new militarism” and accused China of rapidly expanding its military with limited transparency.
China continues to increase its defence spending at a high level, Koizumi said on Sunday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
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“China’s external approach and military activities are matters of serious concern for Japan and the international community at the same time,” he added.
“Think about it. There’s a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers. Japan has neither of such weapons, and yet Japan is labelled ‘new militarism’?”
Koizumi said Japan’s record since World War II “speaks for itself”, citing its adherence to international law and commitment to the United Nations Charter alongside efforts to uphold a “free and open international order”.
In May, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Asia Pacific countries to be vigilant and “jointly resist the reckless actions of Japan’s neo-militarism”.
At the Singapore forum, Chinese delegate Major General Meng Xiangqing criticised Japan.
“I deeply doubt whether a country that has not thoroughly eradicated the toxic legacy of militarism is qualified to talk extensively about defence cooperation on international occasions and whether it can win the trust of the international community, especially the Asian countries it once invaded,” he said.
Ties between Japan and China sank to their worst level in years after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could draw a Japanese military response.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory over the objections of the island’s government.
Koizumi said transparency comes from “discussion and dialogue” and lamented that China had not sent its defence minister to the conference, but he insisted Japan remains open to engagement.
“We keep the door open,” he said, reaffirming Japan’s commitment to dialogue with China and other regional players to foster stability.
As China has been rapidly expanding and modernising its military, Japan has been reshaping its own defence policy. Last month, Takaichi’s cabinet scrapped a ban on lethal weapons exports, a major change in its post-war pacifist policy.
Japan pushes for unity
Separately on Sunday, Koizumi praised US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for his commitment to the Asia Pacific but at the same time stressed the continued need for strong coalitions globally.
“Division weakens deterrence. Unity strengthens deterrence,” he told the conference in Singapore.
“If gaps emerge among the United States, Europe and allies and like-minded countries, forces which take it as an opportunity will surely come in,” he said.
“We must prevent such a situation. We must keep our cooperation going on. Now is the time to make our cooperation even stronger.”
US President Donald Trump has been harsh about fellow members in NATO, and the comments at the Shangri-La conference came the day after Hegseth again chided Western European allies at the forum for not devoting enough resources to defence.
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