2026-10-07
5 分钟Hi, I'm Sarah Wu, co-host of Drum Tower, our podcast about China.
Welcome to Editors' Picks.
We've hand-picked an article for you from the latest edition of The Economist.
We hope you enjoy listening.
Three years ago, this newspaper explored the voguish notion of "peak China",
the idea that the second-biggest economy in the world might stop gaining ground on the first.
Judging by the headlines since, that scenario now looks quaint.
China has wowed the world with its electric cars, dancing robots and choreographed drones.
The country won its latest trade war with America and plans to lead the next industrial revolution.
The red-carpet reception enjoyed by China's leader, Xi Jinping, in Washington in September
was welcomed back home as due recognition of the country's equal stature.
But if you check the macroeconomic figures, the thesis looks intact.
Rather than overshooting projections made in 2023, China's economy has undershot them.
Then, forecasters expected GDP to be 80% of America's by now,
when converted into dollars at market exchange rates.
Instead, it's still only two-thirds.
Catch-up has indeed ground to a halt.
This is the context in which the government is making a big new infrastructure push.
As we report, China plans to spend about 25 trillion yuan, that's $3.7 trillion,
over five years on what it calls the "six networks":