Can Xi Fix China’s Economy as Trump Tariff Threat Looms?

China’s economic growth target of 5% this year is looking ambitious, given sluggish consumer spending, an uncertain outlook for the country’s exports and a still shaky property market. President Xi Jinping’s government spent recent months trying to fix those problems via a succession of stimulus measures that left investors clamoring for more decisive action. Now the election of Donald Trump as US president, with his threat of steep tariffs on Chinese goods, has cast another shadow over the world’s second-largest economy. The risk is of a deflationary spiral that sends China into a period of protracted, Japan-style malaise after three decades of unprecedented growth.

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