Full Text: Premier Li Keqiang Meets the Press(4)

China National Radio: China's anti-corruption campaign in 2014 brought down several "big tigers" or high-ranking corrupt officials. I would like to know what more steps will be taken to enhance institution building in fighting corruption? You once said that it is also corruption for government officials to be indolent or sloppy in performing their duties. So what steps should we take to resolve the problem involving those "do-nothing" officials?

Li Keqiang: The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government are committed to combating corruption and upholding integrity. Since the 18th National Party Congress, the Central Committee of the CPC with comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary has been taking strong efforts to ensure that all acts of corruption will be brought to account. In this process, a number of high-ranking corrupt officials have been investigated and dealt with. Our efforts have yielded good results and won people's support.

To enhance institution building in fighting corruption helps us to address both the symptom and root cause of corruption. First, we must run the country in accordance with the law, and ensure that every one is equal before the law and no one is above the law. Second, we need to press ahead with the reform of the administrative system. Just now I mentioned the reform of the government to streamline administration and delegate powers. This is to eliminate room for rent-seeking to remove the breeding ground for corruption, as rent seeking is a common feature of various kinds of corruption. Third, supervision and educational campaigns will be strengthened. We must make sure that government power is exercised in a transparent way and subject to public oversight. All civil servants must enhance their self-discipline and government power can only be used for public good, not personal gains. There must be no irresponsible action or inaction on the part of government officials, and there is no room for incompetence or indolence either. No government official should be half-hearted in doing their jobs. Such officials will be held accountable.

Straits Times: Premier Li, my question is about China's economy. China has set a lower GDP growth target this year of around 7%. Some say that it signals that Chinese economy has entered what they call a "new normal" of slower but better quality growth. What are the benefits knowing there are also downsides of slowing Chinese economy? Can you tell us how this new normal will affect China and the world? How should we view this and can we have the confidence that China is still committed to this new normal and can mange it well?

Li Keqiang: China's economic development has entered a new normal. This year we have set the GDP growth target at approximately 7%. The GDP growth target has been adjusted downward, but it will by no means be easy to meet this target. Because China's economic aggregate keeps expanding and now the size of the economy is valued about 10 trillion US dollars. So a seven percent increase in today's economy is equivalent to the economic aggregate of a medium-sized country. We want to upgrade China's economy to a medium-high level of development and pursue a growth with improved quality and performance. This will help maintain China's growth at a medium-high speed and lay a more solid foundation for us to achieve modernization. It will also be China's big contribution to global economic growth.