challenges to economic prosperity

• The Asian Development Bank predicts that by 2050, 26% of China’s population will be over the age of 65. This has resulted in a labour shortage given the increasing proportion of the population who were older adults. Moreover, the New York Times reported that the unemployment rate among 16-24 in urban areas hit 21.3% (June 2023).

  • ‘Need to be further improved and optimised.’ (Chinese National Bureau of Statistics)
• In 2018, the US imposed a 25% tariff tax on $34 billion dollars worth of Chinese products. This was done for two reasons: 

  1. To enhance the US’s domestic competitiveness over the Chinese products that have been ‘raping [the] country’, according the 45th President Donald Trump, and whose ‘unprecedented growth’ threatens to overtake that of the current biggest economy in the world. 
  2. To punish the Chinese government for their economy’s ‘unfair growth’, caused by the increased market access granted to Chinese competitors due to their status as a ‘developing country’