Rebecca Feng & Chun Han Wong
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and several hundred other top Communist Party officials huddled in Beijing this week to plot a path forward for their country’s sagging economy. The outline they released after four days of meetings suggests a future that looks more or less like the present.
That fidelity to China’s current course signals that Xi remains committed to his vision of state-led development, even as unease festers—among ordinary Chinese and foreign investors—over his stewardship of the world’s second-largest economy.
Economic growth has slowed sharply as China continues to struggle with an unbalanced recovery from the Covid pandemic. In a communiqué issued Thursday at the end of the meeting, known as the Third Plenum, the party’s governing Central Committee showed unusual candor in acknowledging the problems the economy faces.
The document highlighted risks in key areas such as the property sector, local-government debt, and small and midsize financial institutions. It also promised to tackle lackluster demand, a problem that has dogged the economy.
The discussion of specific threats to growth is unusual in Third Plenum communiqués, which in the past have typically referred to risks only in vague terms.
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