The surprise appointment of Li Qiang as China’s premier does not support the Western media’s depiction of Xi Jinping as a new Mao Zedong. Li sponsored Jack Ma, Elon Musk and other Western entrepreneurs and is relatively market friendly. Rather, Li personifies Xi Jinping’s goal to make China a self-sufficient high-tech power by any means necessary. Xi’s greatest challenge is American determination to slow the digitization of China’s economy by denying it the inputs to maintain its present capabilities in chip fabrication, let alone catch up with Taiwanese and Korean competitors. How severe the blow to China’s ambitions will be depends on whether Japan, S. Korea and Europe join the US blockade. Chinese stocks rallied in November in anticipation of an end to Zero Covid, but a reopening will not occur until after the Lunar New Year at the earliest. China’s growth will be slow due to the combined effect of more COVID lockdowns, the slow resolution of the property market problem, and falling overseas demand.

China Economic Outlook Post 20th National Congress, David P. Goldman - https://image.ypo-mail.org/lib/fe2f1171716404787c1478/m/6/b8e92bde-3279-4d4c-8e47-b93e63151ac7.pdf?j=636394&sfmc_sub=32499818&l=57_HTML&u=15386667&mid=514005908&jb=1