Why China’s economy may be headed for its worst year since 1991 “If you want to earn money, you need to spend a long time on the road,” Tu said, adjusting his orange safety helmet. “I’d like to switch to another career. More and more people are competing in this industry.” Anemic job growth has pushed more than 280 million Chinese into gig economy jobs, up 75 percent from 2019, according to the China New Employment Forms Research Center. While China’s factories and technology labs are global stars, many people are stuck in such dead-end jobs, struggling to find cause for optimism in a stunted domestic economy. This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive at the White House with Chinese global influence on the upswing: China is seen more positively than the United States in most of the 36 nations the Pew Research Center surveyed this summer, a turnabout from 2025. Xi’s host, President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is mired in an unpopular Middle East war and may lose his c...
Posts
TRUMP, XI AND TAIWAN “I’ve just emerged from nearly three hours of briefing and discussions with the President of the Republic and the intelligence and security services. In my 50 years, I have rarely felt such a sense of vertigo. Vertigo at the gravity of the situations in the Middle East and Ukraine, and at the predatory madness driving the world toward chaos.” That was Guillaume Lacroix, a French politician, speaking late last week. He is not alone in his alarm. Dark warnings about the risk of war have been emanating from European capitals for weeks. The alarm bells ringing in Silicon Valley about AI have been heard around the world. An energy crunch is building. The bond markets are signalling a possible debt crisis. This is a fraught moment in world affairs. In theory, that makes it fortunate that the leaders of the two most powerful nations will meet later this week. There is a huge amount for Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to discuss: wars, energy, AI, trade, Taiwan, th...
In China, A.I. Is Moving Forward While the Economy Lags Behind Credit... Dongyan Xu “The U.S. Lead Over China in AI Is All But Gone.” “China Is AI-Maxxing.” “China Just Erased America’s AI Lead.” Those assessments of the artificial intelligence rivalry appeared in U.S. publications recently, and Xi Jinping will be pleased to have them in the air as he arrives in Washington this week for a state visit. Under Mr. Xi’s leadership, China has made huge strides in developing the most consequential technology of our times. What will be less discussed is that he is also the leader of an economy in its worst shape in decades. The two facts are related. Economists in China — even those closest to the state — have openly warned that the government is pouring too many resources into a technology that creates relatively few jobs, while doing too little to save the broader economy. And it’s an economy in crisis: The country’s youth unemployment rate, excluding students, reached 18.9 percent in...