China Social Spending Hits Highest Level in Nearly 2 Decades

China’s government spending has pivoted toward social welfare to a degree unseen for at least a generation, as it runs a record budget deficit with a focus on boosting consumption to cushion the blow from Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The latest evidence arrived on Monday, when China announced it will start offering nationwide cash handouts to families as an incentive for couples to have children. While Beijing is channeling less on-budget investment into infrastructure, expenditure that covers outlays ranging from education to employment and social security climbed to nearly 5.7 trillion yuan ($795 billion) in the first half — the highest for the period since the data series began in 2007.