Barber: Sure many will be delighted to hear your description of China as "highly responsible stakeholder". But do you have the same enlightened view of TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Li Keqiang: We have an open attitude towards the TPP. China is actively working with others to advance the RCEP negotiation. We believe the RCEP, economic integration in the Asia-Pacific, the China-ASEAN FTA, the China-ROK FTA and so on can all work in parallel. This applies to the TPP too. But all in all, I believe we need to have both wheels in motion in advancing trade. That is: there can be bilateral and regional FTA arrangements with their respective distinctive features. At the same time, there also needs to be full compliance with the WTO rules to promote economic globalization and trade liberalization.
Barber: Let me turn to the Chinese economy where you are engaged in a historic transformation. If I ask you for your own report card, how many marks out of ten would you give yourself so far? Eight or nine?
Li Keqiang: It seems to be against the general rule for me to pass a score on how I have performed. I believe that it is up to the people to pass a judgment. As far as I am concerned, I will continue to do my best.
Barber: Are you concerned about inflation, particularly in the real estate market?
Li Keqiang: Inflation has been quite low in the past several months in China. The figure for January and February this year was no more than two percent. In January, it was just zero point something percent. Some even think there is deflation in China. I have already addressed such a question before. China is not in deflation, because over one third of China's CPI composition is food price, and we had a bumper harvest last year. But the tumble of international commodity prices did put our PPI under much pressure. So, in a certain sense, we are on the receiving end of deflation, but this does not mean there is deflation in China.
For the real estate market, we will continue to take a multi-pronged approach to meet the diverse needs in light of the different conditions of different localities. We will continue to build more government-subsidized housing units. We want to have steady and sound growth of the real estate market. The government will continue to encourage the home-buying for self use or improved living conditions, and guard against property bubble. Honestly, there may be certain conflict of interests among these goals, and we need to strike a proper balance among multiple goals and exercise proper regulation. This is not going to be easy, but we will do our best and we believe we can do it.
Barber: Premier Li, the Chinese government has been engaged in a very intense anti-corruption campaign. And you have caught many flies and quite a few tigers recently. Will this campaign ever end?
Li Keqiang: Anti-corruption is a long-term task for any country. It is hard to say when the fight against corruption should start and when it should be brought to an end. It's true that we are intensifying efforts in fighting corruption. In particular, we are very serious about institution building. The government is streamlining administration and delegating powers. We want to ensure that government power will be exercised with restraint, and the government will fully live up to its due responsibilities to boost market vitality, eliminate the space for rent seeking behaviors and uproot corruption. This will be a long-term struggle. If one is to translate "campaign" into Chinese, it should be "行動" instead of "運動" (譯者加: or movement).
Barber: But it is a very powerful campaign, because I spoke to a very prominent Western businessman who went to see one of the Chinese oil companies, and he said he didn't recognize anybody in the room, because the 30 people who were there last year had all disappeared.
