ExplainerFrom outer space to seven seas, China has 6 ambitious priorities as Beijing plots economic recovery in 2024
- China’s annual tone-setting central economic work conference concluded on Tuesday, with a 4,355-character outline of leadership’s plans for next year
- Commercial space flights, the silver economy, competitive domestic brands, food security and a pragmatic work style are all getting a closer look in China
China’s annual two-day central economic work conference, which concluded on Tuesday, laid down expansive policy priorities for the world’s second-largest economy to carve out a stronger recovery path in 2024.
From boosting business sentiment to better coordination among ministries, the 4,355-character readout of the meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping contained a long to-do list.
1. Commercial space flight, hi-tech ambitions
Chinese leaders explicitly stated their ambitions in advancing frontier technologies, including low-attitude aerospace, commercial space flight and quantum science, seeing these realms as new sources of economic growth.
“China has made progress in related research and development, but it’s a different story to commercialise research and development outcomes and develop products that meet the needs of businesses and people,” said Wu Xinjian, a manager at a Shanghai-based incubator and tech consultancy.
2. Become a powerful marine country
The readout also contained Beijing’s imperative to bolster the development of China’s marine economy and be an oceanic superpower, but it did not elaborate on how such an undertaking would be achieved.
China has grown the size of its marine economy to 7.2 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion) in the first three quarters of 2023, up 5.8 per cent from a year earlier, government data showed.