Finance & economics | Hype and hyperopia

How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America

Digital twins, nuclear fusion and the small matter of fixing China’s economy

Illustration of a red robot arm holding a yellow star on a red background
Illustration: Carl Godfrey
|Hong Kong

Last year Xi Jinping, China’s president, paid a visit to Heilongjiang in the country’s north-east. This province, part of the industrial rustbelt, exemplifies the problems besetting China’s economy. Its birth rate is the lowest in the country. House prices in its biggest city are falling. The province’s GDP grew by only 2.6% in 2023. Worse, its nominal GDP, before adjusting for inflation, barely grew at all, suggesting it is in the grip of deep deflation.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Hype and hyperopia”

From the April 6th 2024 edition

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