The Politburo held its April meeting today, and the topic was the economic situation, as it usually is at the April meeting. I have provided a full translation of the readout below.
The meeting acknowledged mounting external pressures that threaten growth in the world’s second-largest economy but did not specify any new stimulus. It did confirm plans to ease monetary policy and accelerate existing fiscal initiatives, while avoiding any commitment to deficit spending beyond what was approved in March. Officials signaled they stand ready with reserve policy tools if needed to counter the impact of U.S. tariffs – suggesting Beijing is preparing contingencies for further trade tensions.
Before diving into the Politburo readout I want to discuss two other issues.
One, it looks like the chatter about some PRC tariff exemptions on some US imports, as I
However, Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo had a reporter outside the US Treasury Department Thursday who saw a group of PRC officials entering the building.
From a ChatGPT translation of the article:
JoongAng Ilbo confirmed that at around 7 a.m. on the same day, a high-ranking official from the Chinese Ministry of Finance, accompanied by about ten aides, entered the U.S. Treasury Department building located next to the White House in Washington, D.C.
The exact identity of the high-ranking official leading the group of about ten aides was not confirmed, but they were all wearing ID cards required for entry to the ongoing G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting in Washington. The ID cards were of the same type worn by Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan, who met with South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok the previous day…
Chinese officials strongly blocked reporters from photographing the high-ranking official entering the U.S. Treasury Department building that morning. When reporters said, “You have no right to block the freedom of the press,” Chinese officials responded, “We have the right to refuse our personnel being photographed,” and demanded that reporters delete all photos taken with their smartphones.
So who was in that group, with whom at Treasury did they meet, and what did they discuss?
Back to the Politburo meeting…
Here is some of the language I found interesting, and please let me know in the comments or the chat what else is interesting.
The section on the assessment of the current situation expresses both confidence and concern, and concludes with a call to “strengthen bottom-line thinking, fully prepare contingency plans”:
Various regions and departments have concentrated efforts on overcoming difficulties, macro policies have been effectively coordinated, the economy has shown a positive trend, social confidence has continued to be boosted, high-quality development has been steadily advanced, and overall social stability has been maintained. At the same time, the foundation for the continued economic recovery and improvement still needs to be further consolidated, and the effects of external shocks are intensifying. It is necessary to strengthen bottom-line thinking, fully prepare contingency plans, and solidly carry out economic work.
The meeting referred to the trade war as a “struggle:
coordinate domestic economic work with international economic and trade struggle [国际经贸斗争], unwaveringly manage our own affairs well, firmly expand high-level opening-up, focus on stabilizing employment, enterprises, markets, and expectations, and use the certainty of high-quality development to cope with the uncertainty of drastic changes in the external environment.
Xinhua English translated 国际经贸斗争 as “endeavors in the international economic and trade field”. “Struggle” for the audience that matters, “endeavors” for external propaganda…
