Decoding Xi’s New Catchphrase Aimed at Reviving China’s Economy

Slogans matter in China. From “socialism with Chinese characteristics” to “common prosperity” the adoption of new catchphrases can herald profound shifts in policy.

So, when “new productive forces” was listed as the top task in the government’s annual statement of priorities published March 5, it set off a scramble to decode what the elevation of the phrase – coined by President Xi Jinping last September — meant. Since 2014, there’s only been one other occasion where an industrial policy slogan has taken top billing. Typically, that slot has gone to pledges about macroeconomic policy.