This article highlights the CCP’s response to the current severe downturn their economy is facing. Due to high youth unemployment, an overpriced real estate market, and the trade war with the US which really strains their export-reliant economy, civil dissent has been an expected outcome of all of this turmoil in regards to their economy. President Xi Jinping, on Monday, invited Chinese tech giants of different firms: Electric car maker BYD, tech giants Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, as well as their new AI platform Deep Seek. These tech firms are the hegemons of their given fields in the country. This meeting mirrors that of another 2018 meeting with an even larger pool of Chinese tech giants, and the reason for this new one could be that Xi is recognizing how much these tech giants contributed to the economic flourishment almost a decade ago, and could be vital with the current economic crisis. And given the technological aspect of this meeting, this is probably a way to secure the people’s republic’s self-sufficiency on tech, especially in competition with the United States. President Xi Jinping is clearly attempting to capitalize on their thriving technological front of the private sector to deal with a plethora of the country’s issues in regards to its relations with the US, but to ultimately give their sluggish economy a much needed boost by encouraging these firms/companies to continue competing with one another and being active producers in the market. The article also states that to further promote these firms’ contributions to China’s tech scene, legislation has been passed to ensure the equal protection of both private and state owned businesses. This approach is a bit different as Beijing is seemingly trying to lean more on the private business sector as opposed to government-led initiatives to tackle a national crisis, AKA, their economy. I think this is where the technological competition and self-sufficiency against their largest adversary, the United States, comes into play as well, further suggesting why China would take this route to tackle their various largest issues with their strongest asset: their technological firms. This strategy sort of shows how, in a world order as interconnected as it is now, especially for a regional power, a state’s foreign policy and domestic/monetary policies often merge. And in China’s case with them being an export-economy, this strategy shows how any of their monetary policies is always connected to their foreign policy. Overall, this move is definitely needed as China faces economic issues on both a domestic and international front in regards to the Tariff War initiated by Trump, but it may not be as effective as they hope given that China has always made sure their private sector in check so as to not have them undermine the CCP for political stability. But the conundrum is that political instability is coming from multiple angles: their own economy, the trade-war with the US, and the possibility of the private sector growing and undermining the CCP and China’s overall autocratic system.
