China’s race for growth is fading. So too is its dream of middle-class security

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a signing ceremony with Algeria’s president Abdelmadjid Tebboune held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 18 July. Photograph: Reuters

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are both putting faith in a five-point plan. Never knowingly undersold, China’s government announced last week that it’s going for a 31-point strategy.

Last week, there were alarmed faces in Beijing at the news that its GDP had improved by just 0.8% in the second quarter of 2023, prompting a sense that China’s economy needs a rapid boost. For the past few years, the private sector has been a target for high-profile crackdowns by the Chinese Communist party (CCP), worried that companies such as Tencent and Alibaba were enjoying too high a profile. Now, it says it wants to make the atmosphere for entrepreneurs “bigger, better, and stronger”.