Ep187: Planning China's Future — Boosting Consumption, Enterprise and Defence

China In Context: Weekly podcast with experts from SOAS

At this month’s legislative session China announced policies to maintain GDP growth at 5%, boost consumption and the private sector and promote AI and high tech industry, from quantum computing to the low altitude economy. But will it be enough to reassure consumers and investors — and does the higher than GDP growth increase in defence spending in the budget, and the continuing crackdown on corruption hint that the leadership’s top priorities are still security and stability rather than growth? Professor Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute and co-author of the recent book, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping, and George Magnus, former Chief Economist at UBS, and a Research Associate at SOAS and at the Oxford University China Centre, share their views. ________________________________________ The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute. ________________________________________ Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0