China In Context
China In Context
SOAS China Institute
China's Economic Plans — and Consumer Challenges
43 minutes Posted Mar 3, 2026 at 4:00 pm.
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China’s legislature is meeting in March to approve the nation’s new Five Year Plan, which aims to promote higher quality growth, and make China increasingly self-sufficient in new technology of all kinds, from AI to semiconductors. Yet it comes against a backdrop of uncertainty and tariff wars abroad, and high youth unemployment and a slumping property market at home. Xi Jinping has pinned his hopes on boosting domestic consumption and has pledged to promote the private economy, which he had ...