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Xi Jinping Vows To Grow China’s Middle Class At Key Communist Party Meeting

   DailyWire.com
Lintao Zhang via Getty Images

Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed a desire to grow his nation’s middle class during a landmark two-hour speech at the Communist Party Congress on Sunday.

As the party’s legislature convenes for its twice-per-decade meeting, Xi opened by discussing his geopolitical ambitions, including the defeat of democratic aspirations in Hong Kong and the imminent conquest of Taiwan. With respect to economic policy, Xi emphasized the need to improve conditions for Chinese families.

“We will steadfastly push for common prosperity. We will improve the system of income distribution,” he said during the speech. “We will ensure more pay for more work and encourage people to achieve prosperity through hard work. We will promote equality of opportunity, increase the income of low income earners and expand the size of the middle income group. We will keep income distribution and the means of accumulating wealth well regulated.”

As couples are now permitted to have up to three children following the end of the infamous one-child policy, the Chinese government has sanctioned several industries in an attempt to create market conditions that promote affordability for larger families. Before a ban on private tutoring was introduced last year, China maintained a supplementary education sector worth $120 billion, with roughly 70% of parents in Beijing and Shanghai paying for their children to receive additional instruction. Officials also prohibited speculation in residential real estate to decrease property prices.

The cultural value of having small families may now be embedded into Chinese culture after decades under the one-child policy, despite repeated efforts from regulators to increase fertility. China, which boasts a population of more than 1.4 billion, only added 480,000 people last year, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics.

The Chinese economy has also struggled over the past two years as Xi and other officials adhere to a “Zero COVID” policy, by which aggressive lockdowns and curfews seek to eliminate all spread of the virus. During his speech, Xi said that the approach would remain intact.

“In responding to the sudden attack of COVID-19, we put the people and their lives above all else and tenaciously pursued a dynamic Zero COVID policy,” Xi declared. “We have protected the people’s health and safety to the greatest extent possible and made tremendously encouraging achievements in both epidemic response and economic and social development.”

The Chinese economy averaged nearly 10% annual growth since free market reforms in 1978 until recently, according to data from the World Bank, which predicts that growth will fall from 8.1% last year to 2.8% this year. Beyond government lockdowns, factors such as scant labor force growth, declining productivity, and low investment returns are dampening the nation’s economy.

Lockdowns in China have also worsened economic prospects across the world and are leading American companies to relocate manufacturing. Apple, for instance, is moving some production for items such as the iPad from China to Vietnam.

China is also enduring a real estate crisis amid declining home prices over the past year. Developers have defaulted on their obligations, and many have stopped work on unfinished housing, which has sparked mass outrage since more than 80% of Chinese homebuyers begin paying mortgages even before their prospective home is completed.

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