Chinese President Xi Jinping has issued a strong directive urging officials to prioritize sustainable and authentic economic progress over inflated or symbolic achievements. Speaking at the Central Economic Work Conference, Xi criticized the practice of launching projects solely for show, such as oversized industrial zones, exaggerated construction launches, and manipulated statistics. He emphasized that development strategies must be grounded in reality, warning against reckless spending and poorly assessed initiatives that drain public resources. Accountability measures should be enforced for those pushing forward impractical plans, he added.
The leader stressed that performance evaluations should extend beyond GDP growth to include improvements in public welfare and long-term economic resilience. He pointed out that short-lived investments—where structures are abandoned immediately after completion—must be avoided. His remarks come amid concerns over rising local government debt and declining fixed-asset investment, which dropped 2.6% in the first 11 months of the year, marking the first annual decline since 1998.
Xi also questioned the trend of provinces uniformly investing in the same high-profile sectors like artificial intelligence and electric vehicles, suggesting a lack of strategic differentiation. This repetition of focus areas across regions may signal inefficiencies in policy execution and growing frustration at the central level regarding implementation quality.
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Xi Warns Officials Against Superficial Economic Gains
[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.] n nChinese President Xi Jinping lashed out at inflated growth numbers and vowed to crack down on the pursuit of “reckless” projects that have no purpose except showing superficial results. n n“All plans must be based on facts, aiming for solid, genuine growth without exaggeration, and promoting high-quality, sustainable development,” Xi said the week of Dec. 8 according to a report on Dec. 14 in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper. n n“Those who act recklessly and aggressively without regard for reality, impose excessive demands, or deploy resources without careful consideration must be held strictly accountable,” he said at the Central Economic Work Conference. The rare stark language urged aiming for quality in economic gains and listed examples of wrongdoing such as unnecessarily huge industrial parks, disorderly expansion of local exhibitions and forums, inflated statistics and “fake construction kickoffs.” n nThe surprisingly direct and specific comments highlight the Chinese leader’s concern over the quality of economic growth and the use of financial resources, particularly as rising local debt is constraining the government’s ability to spend to spur activity. Access to data in China can be sensitive and controlled, making it hard for observers to assess the health of the economy. n nXi said officials should not only be assessed by the economic growth rate, but also their achievements in ensuring people’s well-being and maintaining stability. What they do to lay a solid foundation for the economy in the long run is as important as what they do to stimulate growth now, he added. n nHe warned that “inefficient” investment where projects are abandoned as soon as they are completed must be prevented and also said that officials should pay close attention to the recent slump in capital investment but deal with it calmly. Fixed-asset investment fell 2.6% in the first 11 months of this year, putting it on track for the first annual decline since at least 1998, when comparable data begins. n nThe comments are similar to remarks Xi made earlier this year, when he rebuked local officials for all crowding investment into the same emerging industries, and may indicate a growing frustration at the top with how policies are actually implemented. n n“When it comes to launching new projects, it’s always the same few things: artificial intelligence, computing power, new-energy vehicles,” Xi said in July, according to a People’s Daily article then. “Should every province in the country be developing industries in these areas?”