, Columnist
China Is Paying Lip Service to Consumers
Beijing seems to favor industrial giants over consumers.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
With so much official boosterism in China about the importance of household spending, you would have expected the latest consumption subsidies to be substantial enough to entice reluctant consumers. Instead, the scaled-down effort announced last week only serves to reinforce backing for industrial giants at the expense of shoppers.
The lack of broad-based stimulus support means sales across different industries, and the brands within those sectors, will be highly uneven this year. Long gone are the days of uniform growth in a retail market now worth about $7 trillion. Selective spending by individuals in niche areas will be the order of the day.