The drama around US President Donald Trump and tariffs has pushed one of Beijing’s challenges to the sidelines
by Daniel Moss
Taipe Times
China has taken an important symbolic step toward addressing a persistent drag on its economy. Much attention has been focused on the cost that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs would inflict, the mounting toll of a real-estate crisis, and even the long-term impact of a shrinking labor market. It has been easy to forget that Beijing has an inflation problem.
Not the surging — and now receding — prices that just about every other economy has wrestled with. Instead, Beijing is haunted by the specter of deflation. Chinese Premier Li Qiang (??) told legislators gathered on Wednesday last week at the National People’s Congress that he would target inflation of 2 percent this year, the lowest level in more than two decades. That might not sound like a big breakthrough, given most countries aim for something in that vicinity, and Li’s ambitions to boost government and consumer spending. However, the first stage in solving any problem is acknowledging there is an issue in the first place.