Li says China on track to meet growth goals; vows free trade support

Beijing

PREMIER Li Keqiang said China remains on track to meet its main economic goals for this year while warning of rising geopolitical risk and threats to the global upswing.

Anti-globalisation voices are emerging and world geopolitical risks are increasing, Mr Li told officials and business leaders on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions gathering in China's north-eastern port city of Dalian.

Mr Li's speech was a robust defence of globalisation and a thinly veiled rebuttal of the narrative adopted by US President Donald Trump, who has accused trading partners, including China, of unfair trading practices. It also had echoes of President Xi Jinping who also used the WEF's Davos event in January to champion globalisation. China also used a Group of 20 meeting in Germany in March to push back, unsuccessfully, aga…