this is v.w. news live from berlin a year after corona virus forced china into shutdown now it is setting out plans to bounce back the country shift its focus from fighting the virus to longer term economic goals beijing also outlining electoral reforms that will tighten its grip on hong kong. also coming up germany's new phased plan to reopen is met with

criticism retailers say it is too cautious while public health experts warn it could lead to another wave of infections. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program china has set an economic growth target of over 6 percent for 2021 it announced that figure at the opening of its annual legislative session in beijing china has strongly rebounded from the pandemic in contrast with other major economies it has contains the virus through strict restrictions and mass testing the government's budget report says that china will also boost its defense spending by 6.8 percent in the coming year. and for more i am joined by turn a list mathias bolinger who is joining us from beijing and mathias i'd like to

start briefly with the economy with you as we've heard china has become one of the few economies that have growth last year now the government's having this target of more than 6 percent how do they plan to reach that when it comes to g.d.p. growth. the signal is very clear the economy is going back to normal or the government wants the economy to go back to normal as are the economies will have been able to contain the virus there are a few others i want so korea new zealand for example. they all have been back at gross towards the end of the year and china's not this uing its goals now whether they can reach it or not they can always reach it because there's always ways for china to reach these goals like public investment for example this is what chinese growth has been relying on some experts say too much in the past few years china ones to rebalance its economy it wants to shift to woods consumer because

consumption driven growth rather than investment driven growth also because of public debt whether they can reach this goal is much more do you think these targets many say are. contra productive in that way because they incentivize officials to invest in the public sector meantime as he has on the political front we know that last year the national people's congress imposed a national security law on hong kong this year china strategy to overhaul hong kong electoral system is in focus tell us more about that. yes this is the next step to bring hong kong under control from the beijing government so part of the why the executive the chief executive and and the government off of their off the region have always been under control or have always had candidates that was favored by pe jing. in office palm and haas

been under rule the there was an opposition that did not have the majority the opposition resigned off to some of their deputies how it's been removed from from the legislature and the next step for beijing is to ensure that only loyalists will be able to win seats in the legislative. in the let's go. and we know the national people's congress spokesperson actually said that they wanted patriots in the legislature saluting exactly what they mean by that. time we know that defense spending is also set to increase by nearly 7 percent what shall we read into that. that's pretty much in line with what has been happening for a long time military budget is increased every year in china since the $990.00 s. growth figures offbeat. like 10 or 15 years ago china wants to be

a world power and it wants its military to be able to. not only defense but also to assert its claims and the whole military has been designed to be able to conquer taiwan one day which is this threat that taught china is using 2 to prevent taiwan from becoming independent so there's not really a surprise in this figure china as the 2nd biggest military budget in the world and it is slowly. advancing its military budget to come closer to the u.s. mathias ballinger in beijing thank you. and we'll have more on that story indeed at the a business in around 10 minutes time meantime the united states has tightened export controls on myanmar its latest move to sanction the military juntas deadly

crackdown on protesters fresh protests have erupted in several cities across the country like here in mandalay that is despite as collating violence that saw 38 protesters killed on wednesday the un security council is due to hold talks on the crisis later today the un's special ruffa tour on myanmar is calling for a global arms embargo and targeted sanctions against the military rulers for more let's bring in a man tom to a journalist who is joining us from young gone as we've been hearing in the crackdown on demonstrators traitors has really intensified this week with the death toll climbing are there more protests planned for today and over the weekend. yes there are more protests planned and they are currently already happening we are seeing a shift in protests from having these sort of static standoff with police into protests that are more mobile and more agile and so on are hopefully at least from

the protesters perspective a little bit safer and less likely to result in that the sort of violence that we have been seeing this past week international pressure is also growing on the junta the u.s. expanding its trade blacklist for me on maher how effective do protesters hope that measures like that will be. so targeted sanctions are one of the main things up to protesters since have been asking for from the international community and so they really. sort of moves that the u.s. has been making as well as the move yesterday to block the junta from trying to move a $1000000000.00 worth of assets from u.s. controlled bodies and you know even though the junta has such they come out and said that they will survive sanctions and they are not worried about them they also have invited foreign chambers of commerce to meet with them and were rejected in previous days and so despite the strong stance that they've been showing on the

public face of it it's clear that the hunter really would like to continue foreign investments as we as the coup proceeds we mentioned also that the u.n. security council will be meeting on friday any hope there that that might make a difference. yes so what protesters have really been asking for from the international community beyond sanctions is a global arms embargo which we don't have yet as well as for. the international community to essentially deny the junta any level of legitimacy. we have never mars diplomatic missions in other countries in many of there have been staff members who have declared themselves accountable only to elected governments and you know other countries could help in that perspective by ensuring that they don't work with representatives from the one time and they don't meet with representatives from the one time except to advocate for a return to civil war. and then tucked in young thank you. thank you.

let's get some developments in the coronavirus pandemic now italy has blocked 250000 doses of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine from being shipped to australia it is the 1st time that an e.u. country has blocked a vaccine shipment under export powers that took effect in january the use medicines regulator is reviewing russia sputnik the vaccine paving the way for its potential approval for use across europe sputnik has proven to be more than 90 percent effective in clinical trials and the world health organization is warning europe to increase its vigilance for new highly contagious corona virus variants infections in europe rose by a 1000000 last week ending 6 weeks of decline. retailers have hit out at the decision to extend germany's coronavirus shutdown until the end of

the month saying the plan is a disaster merkel met with state leaders on wednesday and agreed to a cautious reopening strategy the plan also includes measures to make rapid testing more widely available and to speed up the vaccine rollout so far germany has lagged behind many of its european neighbors in getting available doses into people's arms . on the streets of berlin the government's new step by step plan met with little criticism even some sympathy. is raised to understand if i don't want to you mrs merkel shoes i couldn't do it any better that's why i'm cautious we got it just as i'm thick. this country step by step isn't that it's the only way to do it. i don't know what the alternative is opening everything up again i think you have to do it partially simply because the people want to see some restrictions ease of travel mr . but there was also a fair amount of confusion critics say the careful opening strategy that

anglo-american and state leaders agreed on is too complicated. because every song i have to say that what's written there is pretty unclear very confusing it's almost as if people aren't supposed to understand what's meant to happen and. restrictions will be eased in 5 steps each dependent on infection rates remaining below a threshold of between $50.10 per 100000 people access to certain services will also be based on a negative corona test to make this possible people in germany will get at least one free rapid test a week and to boost germany's slow moving vaccination campaign jobs will soon be available at many family doctors. this strategy marks a significant shift from the chancellor's very cautious approach to the pandemic in the past. then 15 feet up we're at the threshold of

a new phase of the pandemic that's been an annoying thoughts or depending me it's a phase which we can't go into carelessly but i think it's important to say with justified hope the heat of the argument that it's the only 19 can the plan has already come under fire from opposition politicians this might not even if 3 percent of germans have been vaccinated with both doses and despite that what they decided to open up even though enough on to pay the bill yet doesn't and fire all of just a warning that with infection numbers inching up again and new more infectious variants spreading fast the government's new opening strategy could prove very risky. sports news for you now and the german bundesliga club shall go i have been playing in the top division for nearly 3 decades but this year it looks like they will be relegated it's been a chaotic period the club's new coach is there this the season dimitrios

promotes is has been unveiled as the new head coach of the 42 year old's task is clear say shall go from relegation definitely a tall order. i see salt as a great challenge i'm really looking forward to the job and will try to channel more of the energy and power this club usually exudes into the team so we can then show that on the pitch. shock his new man gained his coaching experience in the lower division in germany but as a player remotes is made nearly $150.00 appearances in the bundesliga he's played at various clubs shoko only managed one victory under his predecessor their 1st all season now the aim is simple when. if you volunteer here we now want to approach it all with an open mind we want to push with the boys have fun and play like shall go again will now do everything for that and for them to his 1st chance

comes on a friday in a real relegation 6 pointer at home versus minds. there is more bad news for football giants barcelona days after their ex-president was arrested on corruption charges they have been ordered to pay millions of euros in extra taxes the european court of justice has rolled up barcelona received a legal tax breaks that amounted to government aid the club was granted nonprofit status 3 decades ago the court says that gave them financial advantages over rivals . of the business is up next but before that we have got time for a look at some winter sports scenes extreme winter sports teams from the eastern swiss alps where women and men accustomed to catching ocean winds and riding ocean waves tried snow instead the athletes came together as part of something called the x.

project it was no real problem with social distancing as most of them were massed up anyway the extreme sport includes snow windsurfing speed riding snowboarding of course and no kiting. and with that now you're up to date on d w news i'm sarah kelly in berlin that you so much for watching take care and 6 things. i'm secure in the volume room. and in the end this is a me you're not allowed to see you anymore we will send you that. are you familiar with this. new smugglers with bios of the what's your.