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CNN
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President Xi Jinping acknowledged in his New Year’s Eve speech on Sunday that Chinese companies are struggling and job seekers are having a hard time finding work.
This is the first time that Mr. Xi has mentioned economic issues in his New Year’s message since he began doing so in 2013. This is a critical juncture for the world’s second-largest economy. The country is facing a structural slowdown characterized by weak demand, unemployment and deteriorating business confidence.
Mr. Xi acknowledged the “headwinds” facing the country, acknowledging in a televised address: Some had difficulty finding work or meeting their basic needs. ”
“All these things are still at the forefront of my mind,” Xi said. This statement was also widely disseminated by state media. “We will consolidate and strengthen the momentum of economic recovery,” he said.
Hours before Xi spoke, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its monthly Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey, showing that factory activity fell to its lowest level in six months in December. It was done.
According to the NBS, the official manufacturing PMI fell to 49 last month from 49.4 in November.
A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion; a reading below 50 indicates contraction. The manufacturing PMI contracted for the third consecutive month in December.
The country’s large-scale manufacturing industry was weak through most of 2023. After a brief rebound in economic activity in the first quarter of last year, the official manufacturing PMI contracted in the five months to September. Then it dropped back below 50.
China’s economy has been plagued by a series of problems this year, including a prolonged real estate slump, record-high youth unemployment, persistently low prices, and increasing financial stress on local governments.
The Chinese government launched a flurry of support measures last year, vowing to tighten fiscal and monetary policies in 2024, and is desperate to revive growth and boost employment.
But an increasingly statist approach to the economy, which emphasizes party-state control of economic and social affairs at the expense of the private sector, frightens entrepreneurs. The government’s crackdown on businesses in the name of national security is also scaring foreign investors.
On Saturday, the People’s Bank of China announced it had approved an application to remove Alipay, the ubiquitous digital payments platform run by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, as its controlling shareholder. The move means Ma has officially transferred control of the company he co-founded.
Ma, who is also co-founder of Alibaba Group, announced in January last year that he would relinquish control of Ant as part of the company’s exit from the online business. His company was an early target of the Chinese government’s unprecedented crackdown on Big Tech, which has become too powerful in the eyes of the Communist Party.
Xi also made strongly worded comments ahead of the crucial election, pledging that mainland China would be “unified” with Taiwan and reiterating Beijing’s longstanding position on the autonomous island’s democracy.
“China will definitely be unified, and all Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said in part of his speech. Ta. his plans for China’s modernization and development;
Comments come The speech, delivered just two weeks before Taiwan’s Jan. 13 presidential election, had an even sharper tone than his New Year’s address the previous year.
President Xi said, “The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are members of the same family. I sincerely hope that.”
Mr. Xi has made seizing control of Taiwan the cornerstone of his broader goal of “rejuvenating” China to global power and status. Although the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, it claims it as its own territory and has not ruled out seizing the island by force.
Taipei has accused the party of conducting influence operations ahead of the election, with current Vice President Lai Qingde, a candidate openly disliked by the Chinese government, considered the frontrunner. ing.