Xi’s genius plan to empower consumers, with John Wick

China’s President Xi Jinping has finally realised that in a global trade war, the economy with the most powerful consumer base wins.

Boosting domestic consumption is the government’s top economic priority in 2025, as

Premier Li Qiang made clear at this week’s National People’s Congress

. In 2024, consumer spending contributed to only about 30 per cent of economic growth, versus 68 per cent at the onset of 2018, when US President Donald Trump started his first trade war. Most of the 5 per cent expansion came from exports, which makes the nation vulnerable to new tariffs imposed by Washington and the likes of Mexico, where Chinese companies are relocating for easier access to American end users.