This week in Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp legislature, set out President Xi Jinping’s policy goals for 2024. Premier Li Qiang announced that China would set a GDP growth target of around 5%.

China wants technological supremacy over the United States and other nations and proposes to increase research and development spending by 10%. China also wants economic self-sufficiency and is actively discouraging its population from buying foreign-branded goods and services. A stated goal of the National People’s Congress is to increase exports in order to achieve the 5% GDP growth target.