BEIJING – China set its 2026 gross domestic product growth target at 4.5 to 5 percent during its annual parliamentary session that opened Thursday, lowering the goal that had been maintained for the previous three years amid challenges including a prolonged property sector crisis.
Last year, China’s GDP grew by a real 5.0 percent from 2024, fulfilling the annual target of around 5 percent, aided by brisk exports to markets other than the United States, with which Beijing had a trade war, and measures to boost consumer spending.
China will boost its military spending in 2026 by 7 percent from last year, according to a budget report at the annual session of the country’s parliament.
The increase is lower than the year-on-year rise of 7.2 percent in 2025, but it will be the fifth consecutive annual expansion in the 7 percent range.
The National People’s Congress session, which will run until March 12, will also examine and adopt a new five-year economic plan through 2030.
As a long-term growth goal, stipulated in the 15th five-year plan for national economic and social development, China will aim to double its 2020 per capita GDP by 2035 to reach the level of “a moderately developed country,” Premier Li Qiang said as he delivered a government work report.
Proposals for the plan adopted by China’s leadership in October focused on “greater self-reliance” in science and technology, including the development of high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics.
In January, the International Monetary Fund projected that the world’s second-largest economy will grow 4.5 percent in 2026.
China’s GDP increased 5.2 percent in 2023 and 5 percent each in 2024 and 2025, in line with its annual targets. In the October-December period of last year, the economy grew 4.5 percent on year, marking the third consecutive quarterly deceleration.
On Taiwan, which Beijing regards as part of its territory, Li said China will “resolutely fight against separatist forces aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’ and oppose external interference” to advance the cause of national reunification.
In an apparent reference to the “America First” trade protectionist policies pursued by U.S. President Donald Trump, the government report said China will “resolutely oppose hegemonism and power politics” and “uphold international fairness and justice.”