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Text of Premier Li's press conference

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2015-03-15 14:07:30

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Q: I am with Asahi Shimbun News. This year marks the 70 anniversary of the end of WWII. I'd like to ask your outlook on history, Mr Premier.

We've also seen more Chinese tourists have traveled to Japan and bought a lot of things there, but at the same time the numbers of Japanese tourists visiting China as well as Japanese investment in China have both been on the decline.

How do you see such a situation and how do you view the possible impact of China's planed commemoration activities including the military parade on the sentiments of the Japanese people?

A: This year marks the 70th anniversary of victory of the Chinese people's resistance against Japanese aggression and the world anti-fascist war.

Not only China but also many countries in the world have planned to hold diverse forms of commemoration activities. The purpose of these activities is to firmly bear in mind that the lessons gained from the past and ensure that that kind of history will never repeat itself.

The purpose is to uphold the outcomes of the World War II and the post-war international order and international laws to maintain enduring peace of mankind.

It's true that the current China-Japan relationship is in difficulty. The root of the problem is how that war and that part of the history are viewed.

One needs to hold the right outlook on history and that means one needs to take history as mirror and at the same time look to the future.

For leaders of a country, while inheriting the historical achievements made by their forefathers, also need to show the historical responsibilities for crimes made in the past.

The war of aggression imposed on the Chinese people by the Japanese militaries brought untold sufferings and the average people in Japan were also victims of that war. At such a critical moment this year, there is both a test and an opportunity for China-Japan relationship.

If leaders of Japan can face history squarely and maintain consistency in how they view that part of history, there will be opportunities for improvement and further growth of China-Japan relations. It will also create favorable conditions for the growth of business relationship between the two countries. Thank you.

Text of Premier Li's press conference

Q: I am with Xinhua News Agency. Since the beginning of last year, the banks of NPL ratio has been increasing, and cases of financial risk of shadow banking have occurred from time to time.

And soon many local governments need to have a lot of debt being paid. As the downward pressure on Chinese economy grows, how do you see these building up of financial risks?

A: I think our financial risks are at the center of the questions you just raised. It's true that there have been individual cases of financial risks in China. But at the same time, we are fully capable of avoiding systemic and regional risks.

Chinese economy continues to operate within the proper range, and there is a very high saving rate in China. Moreover, 70 percent of local governments' debts are in the form of investment, which supposes to have a quite good prospect for yielding returns. And we are also regulating these local governments financing vehicles to insure that we will keep the front doors open and at the same time to block those back doors.

At the same time, Chinese banks have very high capital adequacy ratio and ample previsions. It's true that there is non-performing alarm and the NPL ratio has picked up somewhat. But still the ratio of NPL in China is quite low internationally.

Individual financial cases of financial cases will be allowed with the encourage practices of balancing one's book in the market based way.

We need to guard against moral hazard and raise the people's awareness of these financial risks.

This year, we are going to introduce this deposit insurance system and continue to develop multi-tiered capital markets and lower the companies leverage ratio. All these efforts will help insure the financial services can better serve the real economy.