{"id":471950,"date":"2026-02-16T12:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471950\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T12:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:38:07","slug":"chinas-xi-prioritises-ai-plus-and-consumer-spending-to-counter-economic-headwinds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471950\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Xi prioritises \u2018AI-plus\u2019 and consumer spending to counter economic headwinds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">President Xi Jinping has deemed the acceleration of consumption and innovation, particularly in artificial intelligence, an essential task as the world\u2019s second-largest economy seeks to overcome challenges in 2026.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The president\u2019s priorities, officially laid out before the year began, were revealed to the public in a speech excerpt published on Monday by the ruling Communist Party\u2019s leading theoretical journal.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Xi emphasised the need to boost domestic demand, giving it the lion\u2019s share of attention as an economic anchor that is central to stability, in line with Beijing\u2019s pivot to unleash domestic dynamism in its economic policymaking.<\/p>\n<p>The leader\u2019s remarks were part of his speech to ministers and provincial cadres attending the annual course-setting <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/policy\/article\/3290090\/what-chinas-central-economic-work-conference-and-why-does-it-matter?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">central economic work conference<\/a> in December, and their revelation may herald fresh measures to come ahead of China\u2019s annual parliamentary meetings next month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe shall grow incomes for urban and rural residents, expand the supply of quality goods and services, eliminate unreasonable restrictions on consumption and tap potential in culture and tourism,\u201d the Qiushi Journal quoted Xi as saying.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He also called for optimising schemes for consumer goods trade-in and equipment upgrades, and he emphasised the immense potential and key advantage of China\u2019s \u201cultra-large market\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But encouraging timid consumers to spend more remains a tall order for Beijing, given last year\u2019s mixed performance. <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/economic-indicators\/article\/3340360\/chinas-gdp-rises-5-2025-us-trade-war-fails-knock-economy-course?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Retail sales grew 3.7 per cent<\/a>, year on year, trailing the country\u2019s 5 per cent overall economic growth and underscoring the urgent need for greater consumption support to help shake off the malaise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Xi Jinping has deemed the acceleration of consumption and innovation, particularly in artificial intelligence, an essential task&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[181,550,28,144,19542,101,22831,556,5425,18736,32938,637,219043,4633,13563,33670,21],"class_list":{"0":"post-471950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-beijing","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-communist-party","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-greater-bay-area","15":"tag-guangzhou","16":"tag-hong-kong","17":"tag-macau","18":"tag-national-development-and-reform-commission","19":"tag-president-xi-jinping","20":"tag-qiushi-journal","21":"tag-shanghai","22":"tag-shenzhen","23":"tag-south-china-morning-post","24":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}