China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has used recent trips to a corn farm, a steel plant and a tech innovation center to highlight a new economic strategy:

The country will have to retool its economy to depend less on foreign economies in a post-pandemic world.

Mr. Xi has said that Chinese people need to spend more and manufacturers have to be more innovative.

The most pressing issue at hand, according to official media comments on Mr. Xi’s strategy, is that China must be ready for sustained acrimony with the United States that could put at risk its access to the American market. “This policy has a lot to do with China’s changing international environment, particularly the deterioration of Sino-American relations,” said Yao Yang, the dean of the National School of Development at Peking University.

“China needs to prepare for the worst-case scenario, in which the U.S. seals off China in certain tech areas.” Doubts: Chinese leaders have promised since at least 2006 to make domestic consumer spending a bigger share of economic activity — with mixed success. And China depends on imports of technology, crops and energy.

Source nytimes