Coronavirus a stress test for China’s economy, Xi Jinping ‘told Communist Party insiders in April’
- Party journal says president unveiled plans to boost domestic demand to senior advisers a month before going public with the concept
- Xi highlights urbanisation as consumption driver as globalisation wanes
“This pandemic is a stress test under real combat conditions,” Xi said in a speech on April 10, two days after Beijing lifted the lockdown in the central city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected, and a month before the policy was unveiled to the public.
The full speech was published in party-affiliated journal Qiushi on Saturday following an annual policy-setting meeting of the party’s upper echelon last week.
In the April 10 speech, Xi said the pandemic would intensify the international shift away from globalisation that was weakening China’s “world factory” model of development.
As a result, China had to rely more on domestic production and consumption to achieve long-term growth – while also continuing to open up to foreign investment.
“There is no contradiction between expanding domestic demand and opening up,” Xi said, outlining an approach that would be made public in mid-May.
“The smoother the domestic circulation works, the more attractive it will be to global resources, and more conducive to building a new ‘dual circulation’ development model that is focused on domestic circulation with support from international circulation.”