On the morning of March 11, after the closing of the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress, Premier Li Keqiang attended a press conference and answered questions from Chinese and foreign journalists in the Golden Hall on the third floor of the Great Hall of the people. The following is the record of Premier Li Keqiang's press conference: Zhang Yesui: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, media friends. The fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress has just held its closing session. Now we are very honored to invite Premier Li Keqiang to meet you and answer your questions. Let's welcome Premier Li. Li Keqiang: Thank you for your efforts and hard work during the two sessions. Because of the epidemic situation, we continue to hold press conferences by video connection. I am willing to answer the questions raised by friends from reporters. Zhang Yesui: Thank Premier Li Keqiang. Now let's start asking questions. AP: my question is about the multiple challenges facing China's economy. China's economy is now gradually transforming from high-speed growth to sustainable, fair and green growth. We see that last year, the Chinese government took a series of measures to reduce debt levels and regulate high-tech enterprises. This year, China has covid-19, which many economists consider to be an ambitious 5.5% growth target, which is set in the face of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the Ukraine conflict. What I want to ask is, does the Chinese government mean that it will pay more attention to growth this year? Put growth before structural reform and reducing carbon emissions? How will the Chinese government balance these different development goals? In addition, on the issue of Ukraine, where should China's important economic and trade relations with Europe be in this crisis? Is China worried that this relationship with Russia will affect the good relationship with Europe and even China's own economic development because of the current handling of the crisis? Li Keqiang: you mentioned China's economic growth. Last year, China's total economy reached more than 110 trillion yuan. Continued growth can be said to be on a high base. From a global perspective, it is a big problem for such a large economy to maintain medium and high-speed growth. Just now you mentioned that our economic growth target of about 5.5% this year is an ambitious target. I still remember that at this press conference last year, a reporter asked me, saying that you set a target of more than 6%. Is the target of 6% low? It's not that we didn't feel that because of the low base of last year, it was entirely possible to achieve 8% or even higher growth last year, but we still determined to increase by more than 6%. The "above" is an opening and we are happy to see its success. However, the benchmark of our macroeconomic policy is determined according to 6%, that is, fiscal, monetary, employment and other policies should be carried out around this benchmark, which makes us reduce the deficit ratio and the macro leverage ratio decline steadily, which also reserves policy space for meeting new challenges this year. Looking back to 2020, under such a severe situation, we did not engage in "flood irrigation" over issuance of currency. Last year and even until February this year, when inflation remained high in many countries in the world, our consumer price, that is, CPI, increased by less than 1%, which is related to the reasonable macro policies we implemented. Of course, as I said just now, we formulate macro policies based on China's national conditions and reality, and do not mean to evaluate other countries. *** This year, the economy has indeed encountered new downward pressures and challenges, not to mention the changing complex environment and increasing uncertainties. That is, we should achieve the target of 5.5% and its increment, that is, China's GDP of more than one billion yuan An increase of 5% is equivalent to the total economic output of a medium-sized country. Ten years ago, our total economic output was still more than 50 trillion, an increase of 10%, with an increase of 6 or 7 trillion. This year, we have to have an increase of 9 trillion nominal GDP. It's like mountaineering. If you want to climb a mountain of 1000 meters and want to climb 10%, you can climb 100 meters. If you want to climb a mountain of 3000 meters and want to climb 5%, you can climb 150 meters. Moreover, the conditions have also changed. The higher the pressure, the lower the pressure and the less oxygen. It seems that the speed has slowed down, but in fact the weight is heavier. Achieving a growth rate of about 5.5% is stable at a high level. In essence, it is progress. It is not easy. There must be corresponding macro policy support. For example, in terms of fiscal policy, we have reduced the deficit rate to 2.8% this year, which is more than 200 billion yuan less than last year. But at the same time, we have increased fiscal expenditure. Then you ask, where does the money come from? As I have said in the government work report, the unused and balance profits of specific central financial institutions and specialized institutions in the past two years, coupled with the financial budget stability adjustment fund, the scale of new expenditure is not less than 2 trillion, and the increased scale is mainly used for tax reduction and fee reduction, especially tax rebate, which is equivalent to giving oxygen to people climbing the mountain. Of course, we also have supporting financial, employment and other measures. If we say that the measures we have taken this year are not only short-term, but also based on the current and long-term. We will never advance the future. It is sustainable. As mentioned by our reporter friends, China also has many problems to deal with, such as climate change, income gap, debt and so on, which need us to effectively deal with in the medium and long term, including this year. We are making arrangements for relevant measures. China's modernization is still a long-term process. We need to use development methods to solve problems in development in this process. You just mentioned the situation in Ukraine. The current situation in Ukraine has attracted worldwide attention, and China is also deeply worried and deplored. I sincerely hope that the situation in Ukraine can be eased and return to peace as soon as possible. China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace and has never targeted third parties in developing bilateral relations. In the spirit of mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win results, we will develop cooperative relations with all parties to provide more stability to the world. thank you. Reuters: since the Russian attack on Ukraine, 2 million refugees and hundreds of civilians have been killed. People are also worried about the prospect of nuclear escalation. However, China has not condemned Russia's behavior or called it an invasion. Will China not condemn Russia anyway? In the face of sanctions against Russia, will China further provide economic and financial support to Russia? Are you worried about the negative impact of sanctions from other countries? Li Keqiang: as I just said, China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace. With regard to the situation in Ukraine, China holds that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected, the purposes and principles of the UN charter should be respected, and the legitimate security concerns of all countries should also be paid attention to. Based on this, China makes its own judgment and is willing to work with the international community to play a positive role in returning to peace. The current situation in Ukraine is indeed worrying. We should do our best to support Russia and Ukraine to overcome difficulties and negotiate a peaceful outcome. We support and encourage all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis. It is urgent for all parties to avoid the situation getting out of control and even escalating tension. China calls for maximum restraint to prevent large-scale humanitarian crises. China has put forward initiatives to deal with the situation in Ukraine, especially the humanitarian situation, and will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. At present, it is difficult for the world economy to be affected by the impact of the epidemic. The relevant sanctions will have an impact on the world economic recovery and will be detrimental to all parties. China is willing to make its own constructive efforts to maintain world peace and stability and promote development and prosperity. thank you. CNBC reporter: the relevant research of the national finance and development laboratory shows that fee reduction is the most helpful to small enterprises, followed by tax reduction. Can you share with us the specific data on the impact of tax reduction and fee reduction? In addition, due to the slowdown in the development of the real estate market, the local government finance has decreased. What are the considerations in this regard? In terms of consumption, will the government consider issuing consumption vouchers and other similar policies and measures? Li Keqiang: the conclusion should be supported by theory and practice. From our practice in recent years, the effect of tax reduction and fee reduction is the most direct. I remember talking with a dozen entrepreneurs in the eastern region last year. They talked about the difficulties in the operation of enterprises and hoped that the state would introduce some macro support policies. I said at that time that the central government had policy reserves, but they needed to be used centrally. There are three choices, but you can only do multiple-choice questions, that is, one out of three. First, large-scale investment. Maybe you can get orders. Second, the issuance of consumption vouchers may directly stimulate consumption. Third, reduce taxes and fees for enterprises, stabilize employment and promote investment and consumption. They were silent for a moment and answered almost unanimously. We chose the third item. Because this is the most direct, fair and efficient. According to the relevant reports I received this year, tax cuts and fee reductions are generally regarded as the first expectation for the government's macro policies. It seems that fertilization must be applied to the roots before the roots are strong and the branches can flourish. I also saw from the materials that some people are worried about whether the marginal effect has decreased after the implementation of tax cuts and fees for several years, that is to say, the effect is not as big as before. The large-scale tax cuts and fee reductions we have implemented this time are tax rebates and tax cuts at the same time, with a scale of 2.5 trillion yuan. When the economy was hit hardest in 2020, our policy scale was so large that we finally survived. Moreover, we adjusted the structure this time and put the tax rebate in the front. The so-called tax rebate means that according to the design of the tax system, the tax rebate for market subjects is similar to the tax paid first and then returned. We adopt the method of early tax rebate, that is, the tax retained is refunded to enterprises at one time, with a scale of more than 1.5 trillion yuan. If the effect is good, we will intensify our efforts. We give priority to small and micro enterprises in tax rebate, because small and micro enterprises have a large number and a wide range, support a large number of employed people, and now is the most tense and difficult time for their funds. Therefore, we should refund the retention tax of small and micro enterprises in one time before the end of June this year, and comprehensively solve the retention tax of some key industries such as manufacturing and R & D services within the year, The incremental tax rebate for small and micro enterprises shall be solved month by month. When I participated in the discussion of the CPPCC, a CPPCC member was an entrepreneur. He told me that compared with other measures such as tax reduction and fee reduction and investment, the tax rebate came the fastest and the best. There may be many twists and turns in running a project. The tax rebate is equal to sending cash directly to the enterprise and increasing cash flow, which is timely. It seems that it is better to say a thousand words than to do one thing. We must put this key measure in place. Tax refund and fee reduction is subtraction, but it is also addition in essence, because if you refund today, you will increase tomorrow. If you reduce today, you may increase tomorrow. We paid more tax than we did last year. Since 2013, we have implemented value-added tax reform, guided by tax reduction, with a cumulative reduction of 8.7 trillion yuan. At that time, we