China's Xi vows to push reforms while expanding global role

Shanghai

CHINESE President Xi Jinping stressed the need for stable growth and to press ahead on political and economic reforms in 2016, as the world's second-largest economy expands its role on an international stage.

Mr Xi used his annual New Year's Eve speech to again emphasise how the country must open up its markets while lifting the lot of its 1.3 billion people, despite an economy growing at its slowest pace in a quarter-century.