the country for years. we cannot, will not, and must not hide behind human error. and we re seeing pictures from just a minute ago from athens, kbr greece, protests turning violent as protesters clashed with police, anger building over that deadly train crash. we ll have more later on. today marks the opening session of china s national people s congress. it s first since xi jinping sealed his place atop the communist party back in october. both friends and adversaries of china are very keen to see who rises or falls in power this week and which policies are formally adopted. china s premiere, who is expected to step down after ten years in the post is expected to offer an address on the state of the country and beijing s continued hardline towards taiwan. here he is.
translator: we should insist on implementing the party s overall policy in the new era on resolving the taiwan question, firmly adhere to the one china principle, and the 1992 consensus and firmly take resolute steps to oppose taiwan independence and promote reunification. we should promote the peaceful development of cross-straight relations in advanced process to the motherland s peaceful reunification. compatriots on both sides of the taiwan straight are one family bound by blood. we should advance economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation. now, those tough words were backed up by a major boost in defense spending. cnn beijing bureau chief steven jiang is tracking all of this from the chinese capital. that increase in defense spending making plenty of headlines, but a lot of the focus there season chinese s economic growth targets. take us through the highlights. that s right. officially, they have unveiled their target for the gdp growth this year, would be quote/unquot
decisive action still seems to be on the right side of the equation but we re going to have to see how this unfolds and what exactly is behind it, leslie clark was on cnn today and he said we don t know if this is an uptick in activity where we are simply seeing and discovering activity that was always there and we did not know it before. rosemary: you can watch my full interview with ron bronstein and the next hour. this all started with our suspected chinese by balloon last weekend. the big question of the four incidences connected? let s get perspective from cnn beijing bureau chief stephen young, good to see you. what is been the reaction so far from the chinese officials and media outlets to the u.s. shooting down the fourth unidentified flying object and what are they saying about a ufo spotted over china s eastern coast?
message, she made this call for help. don t let us be taken away or convicted arbitrarily, don t let us disappear from this would recall unjustly. cnn has asked beijing authorities for comment on the young woman you saw there along with the other detentions but we have not heard back. we ve learned she s one of eight people who had been quietly detained after the protests, people who know these women tell us they were confused as to why they were taken describing them as young female professionals works in publishing, journalism and education, saying they re socially minded but not dissident organizers, experts say the police may have been suspicious of young politically aware women, chinese authorities have a well documented hesitate of targeting feminists and at least one of the women detained was questioned during her interrogation about whether she had any involvement in feminist groups, cnn beijing. thanks for spending part of
public spaces, many people tell cnn they have chosen not to report their positive results. they re opting to quarantine at home instead. the official total of new cases was down on sunday in the chinese capitol, but the true number could be much higher than reported. cnn s christy lustout joins me now from hong kong. how is china s roll back affecting residents in beijing and elsewhere. reporter: in cities across the country residents are bracing for a surge in covid-19 infection just as the country is unwinding after three years of this punishing zero covid policy. in beijing businesses are closed. the restaurants that are open are largely deserted, and according to our colleagues at cnn beijing the biggest crowds they ve seen are the lines outside pharmacies and covid-19 testing centers. i want you to listen to this