Going by the number of state and Communist party plans to ‘boost consumption’ over the summer, it appears that Beijing is rattled about the Chinese economy.

It is right to be worried. Deep-seated and systemic issues that predate Covid are tearing away at China’s fabled dynamism. These include excessive debt, low productivity, a flawed real estate market, weak income and consumption, poor demographics, a highly regressive tax structure, and a political governance structure that is controlling and generally hostile to entrepreneurship.