Grumbling about China’s slow internet speeds is a national pastime, but few were expecting Li Keqiang, the prime minister, to join in last week. “I have visited some developing countries that have faster internet connections than Beijing,” he said with evident exasperation during a committee meeting of the country’s largely ceremonial legislature this month.
It was the first time this problem had been publicly acknowledged by such a high official — and crystallised a dilemma facing China’s leaders. As economic growth begins to sag from double digits to what Mr Li calls a “new normal” — 7 per cent GDP growth expected this year — the government is talking up the power of the internet to transform the economy and avoid a hard landing.
In his speech to the National People’s Congress, Mr Li mentioned the internet no less than 12 times and peppered his speech with terms such as “renxing”, a popular hashtag on Chinese social media meaning “capricious”. He also touted “internet plus,” a new strategy to “integrate the mobile internet, cloud computing, big data and the internet of things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of ecommerce”.