Xi convenes economic meeting under shadow of Trump’s strategic threat
Meeting to discuss policies for following year starts as US president is poised to declare China a strategic competitor
Translating President Xi Jinping’s “high quality” growth ideas into actions and policies was expected to be the focus as some 400 cadres and provincial governors gathered at a heavily guarded hotel in Beijing on Monday for China’s annual economic conference.
Analysts said a less friendly Washington, Trump’s tax cut plans and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate rises could complicate Beijing’s campaign to reduce debt and curb pollution next year.
“China could take a wait-and-see approach as there are still many uncertainties around implementing these policies,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong.
Domestic deleveraging, however, poses a much bigger threat to the world’s second largest economy. “It could be the biggest downside risk next year,” Hu said.
Ahead of the conference, the 25-member Politburo outlined three key economic tasks for 2018 – risk prevention, poverty reduction and pollution control – and highlighted the need to reduce macroeconomic leverage ratios and provide support for the real economy.