Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met hundreds of domestic and foreign journalists at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The Premier said that is pushing ahead supply-side reforms, such as streamlining regulatory procedures and cutting taxes, to free up market vitality. While China’s economy was presently facing difficulties, hopes were bigger than the difficulties. China had the policy reserves to handle headwinds from the global economic slowdown. “We are full of confidence in the long-term good prospects of the Chinese economy,” Li said. He added that the central government would try its best to solve issues concerning people’s livelihoods, such as pension payments and health insurance. “There will be absolutely no problem for the government to meet the public’s pension payment needs,” Li said. The national pension insurance reserve recorded a surplus of CNY340 billion last year, taking the cumulative figure to CNY3.4 trillion since it was established in 1998. said China would try to avoid mass lay-offs in its economic restructuring process. “We will press ahead to reduce capacity, but we must ensure that the rice bowls of workers are still there, or we must give them new rice bowls,” he said. The central government had already set aside CNY100 billion to help laid-off workers, and Beijing was ready to boost the fund if necessary, he said.

Foreign journalists were mainly interested whether the Chinese economy would face a hard landing. Premier Li said new forces would replace old forces to keep on powering the economy and avoid a hard landing. Li said the required reserve ratio (RRR) and interest rate cuts were not quantitative easing measures. China took measures last year to manage abnormal volatility in the stock market, and the measures had achieved their desired effects. Still, the Premier said, China needed to improve its financial regulatory system. Premier Li expressed confidence over Beijing’s ties with Washington, regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election later this year. China became the U.S.s’ top trading partner, with two-way trade reaching USD560 billion last year. Li said both countries need to follow the principles of equality and mutual benefit, such as in negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty.

About 24 million people took part in a poll organized by China Daily and online news portal Toutiao.com asking them to choose three out of 10 questions they would like to ask the Premier. The top question was: “How to achieve national portability of medical insurance plans”. Premier Li said the government “is resolved” to achieve national portability of health insurance plans “at a faster pace” and that provincial-level portability will be achieved within the year. At present, patients face difficulties to have their medical expenses reimbursed outside their hometown as listed in their household registration. Hundreds of millions of migrants are affected by the policy.

Some issues were not mentioned at all during the press conference, including environmental pollution, soaring property prices, the reform of China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs), ties with Europe, and ethnic tensions.