China’s push for ‘new productive forces’ – new slogan, old ideas?

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest catchphrase – “new productive forces” – received top billing at the country’s recently concluded annual parliamentary meetings, or Two Sessions. “New productive forces” is, in a way, a repackaging of “Made in China 2025” – a 10-year plan rolled out in 2015 to strengthen Chinese manufacturing in high-tech sectors such as new energy vehicles, robots and biomedicine, NTU professor of economics Tan Kong Yam told The Straits Times. He warned that overzealous local officials might go too far in pushing for “new productive forces” beyond what makes sense for their localities, resulting in a wastage of resources. Chinese provinces vary significantly in terms of education level, and not all of them – particularly those in the central and western regions – are suited to pursuits such as AI, he noted.