Xi calls on the Chinese to be patient while the Communist Party tries to reverse the economic downturn

Beijing (AFP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for patience in a speech released as the ruling Communist Party tries to reverse course. Deepening economic recession He said Western countries were “in increasing trouble” because of their material and “spiritual poverty”.

The Kiyoshi newspaper, the party’s top theory journal, published Xi’s speech hours after data on Tuesday showed consumer and factory activity weakened in July despite official promises to support struggling entrepreneurs. The government skipped giving an update on the politically sensitive rise in youth unemployment.

Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, called on China to “build a socialist ideology with strong cohesion” and focus on long-term goals of improving education, health care and food supplies for China’s 1.4 billion people rather than seeking only material wealth.

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has called for the restoration of the ruling party’s role as economic and social leader and has tightened control over business and society since taking power in 2012. Some changes come at an increasing cost as successful Chinese companies are pressured to turn around. Money in political initiatives including processor chip development. The party has tightened its grip on the tech industries by launching data security and antitrust measures that have wiped billions of dollars off their stock market value.

“We must show historical patience and insist on making steady progress step by step,” Xi said in the speech. Kiyoshi said it was delivered in February in the southwestern city of Chongqing. It is common for Qiushi magazine to publish sermons months after they are received.

Economic growth eased to 0.8% in the three months ending in June from the previous month, down from 2.2% in the January-March period. That equates to a 3.2% annual rate, which would be among China’s weakest in decades.

A survey in June found that unemployment among urban workers ages 16 to 24 had risen to a record high of 21.3%. The Census Bureau said this week that it will withhold updates while it revises its measurements.

The government has also expanded counterintelligence rules and tightened controls on information, leaving foreign and private companies unsure about what activities might be permitted.

Xi emphasized “shared prosperity,” a 1950s slogan his party has revived. He called for narrowing China’s growing wealth gap between the small elite and the poor majority and “regulating the healthy development of capital” but did not announce new initiatives.

Xi said “the common prosperity of all people” is “an essential feature of Chinese-style modernization and distinguishes it from Western modernization.”

Xi said Western-style modernization “seeks to maximize capitalist interests instead of serving the interests of the vast majority of people.”

“Today, Western countries are facing increasing problems,” Xi said. “They cannot rein in the greedy nature of capital and they cannot solve chronic diseases such as materialism and spiritual poverty.”