China’s president made the pitch at a national conference on April 8: the country needs a demand-driven approach to developing its services sector. Xi Jinping outlined a strategy built on reform, technological upgrades, and international cooperation to stabilize an economy that has been stubbornly resistant to stabilization.
The policy blueprint
Xi’s emphasis on the services sector follows a December 2025 decision by the Communist Party Politburo that named boosting domestic consumption as the primary economic goal for 2026.
The government set a GDP growth target of 4.5-5% for 2026. For context, China targeted “around 5%” growth in recent prior years, and even that was considered modest by historical standards.
The property problem that won’t go away
