China on Tuesday downgraded this year's economic growth target and decided to slow the pace of expansion in its defense budget for 2019, as it has been engaged in trade and security spats with the United States.

Beijing has set a gross domestic product growth target of 6.0 to 6.5 percent for 2019, down from last year's target of about 6.5 percent, with fears mounting that economic sluggishness in the Asian power will blur the outlook for the global economy.

China also said it will increase military spending by 7.5 percent this year to 1.19 trillion yuan ($177 billion), almost four times that of Japan, but the budget expansion decelerated from the 8.1 percent gain in 2018.

The pace of growth in China's GDP was its slowest in 28 years in 2018, expanding 6.6 percent from a year earlier, as a tit-for-tat tariff escalation with the United States -- worth hundreds of billions of dollars -- choked exports and domestic demand.

"What we faced was profound change in our external environment," Premier Li Keqiang said on the first day of the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament.

China-U.S. economic and trade friction, in particular, "had an adverse effect on the production and business operations of some companies and on market expectations," said Li, who delivered a work report mapping out policy direction for 2019.

The premier pledged to implement large-scale fiscal stimulus measures this year -- including tax cuts and fiscal expansion intended to shore up rural economies by increasing the issuance of local government debt.

An economic downturn has sparked concern that it would frustrate China's efforts to achieve its goal of building a "moderately prosperous society," defined by the leadership headed by President Xi Jinping as doubling its 2010 GDP and per-capita income by 2020.

In an apparent nod to the United States, with which China has been talking to strike a trade deal, Li emphasized that Beijing will proceed with its "reform and opening-up" policy, designed to develop a market economy under the ruling Communist Party.

"We need to balance the relationship between government and market, and energize market entities through reform and opening-up" to "withstand the downward pressure on the economy," Li said.

"The government must act with resolve to hand over matters it shouldn't manage to the market, and make maximum reductions to its direct allocation of resources."

At their summit in Argentina in December, Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a truce in which both promised to refrain from imposing further tariffs on each other's imports for 90 days while trying to complete trade negotiations.

As talks continue, Washington said late last month that it has suspended the planned increase indefinitely following Trump's decision to extend the March 1 deadline, with speculation rife that Xi and Trump may hold a summit later this month.

The world's two largest economies have been at odds over what Washington calls Beijing's "unfair" trade practices, such as alleged intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, and opaque subsidies to state-owned enterprises.

Li also made no mention of the "Made in China 2025" technology blueprint, under which China has been attempting to create global leaders in advanced technologies at the state's initiative.

Trump, who ran his presidential campaign with the "Make America Great Again" slogan, has criticized the plan, with the U.S. government having targeted Chinese goods containing technology related to it in the tariff war.

Beijing "will continue to promote China-U.S. trade negotiations," Li said, adding, "China is committed to mutually beneficial cooperation, win-win development and settling trade disputes through discussion as equals."

China's 7.5-percent increase in its annual defense budget in 2019, meanwhile, is faster than the pace of economic growth.

Beijing, however, appeared to have shied away from raising its military spending sharper than the previous year to avoid irritating Washington, as the two nations have been divided over security issues like Taiwan and the South China Sea, foreign affairs experts say.

In recent years, China has rapidly constructed islands with military infrastructure in the South China Sea, where it and several Southeast Asian countries have overlapping territorial claims.

Also, in the East China Sea, Beijing and Tokyo have been mired in a territorial row over the Senkaku Islands -- a group of uninhabited islets controlled by Japan but claimed by China. The remote islands are called Diaoyu in China.

As for self-governing Taiwan, Li said, "We will resolutely oppose and deter any separatist schemes or activities seeking Taiwan independence."

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since they split amid a civil war in 1949. Beijing has since then endeavored to undermine Taipei's quest for international recognition.

China has stepped up such efforts, particularly since President Tsai Ing-wen -- who belongs to the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party -- came to power in Taiwan in May 2016.