How can China get consumers spending? Here are 5 ideas being floated in Beijing

South China Morning Post

08-07-2025

China has made boosting consumer spending a key policy priority in recent months, as it tries to rebalance its economy away from a reliance on exports and offset the impact of an unprecedented trade war with the United States.
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The country has launched a massive trade-in programme for consumer goods that
has succeeded in driving up sales of everything from cars to smartphones, but there are signs that the policy
is starting to lose momentum and deflationary pressure continues to affect the economy.
That
has led to growing calls for the government to take further action, with top Chinese economists floating a range of new policy proposals. Here are five of the ideas being discussed.
Assess local officials based on their ability to boost consumption
Bai Chongen, dean of the School of Economics and Management at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, has suggested making consumption a key performance indicator for local governments.
China's appraisal system for local cadres plays a key role in determining which officials are promoted to higher levels of government, and the system
is known to shape officials' priorities while in office.
If local economic growth remains the top performance metric, officials will keep prioritising investment-driven development, leading to oversupply, price instability and mounting debt pressure, Bai said in an interview with China News Service.
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Making consumption a key performance metric, he argued, would instead steer local governments towards a more sustainable growth model – one that fosters stable employment and strengthens consumer confidence.