Successive cohorts of PRC university graduates passed 10 million for the years 2022–25, becoming the majority of candidates for urban jobs. Yet despite high unemployment among young adults, firms struggle to recruit qualified ‘talent’. To solve the mismatch, Beijing is rethinking tertiary education.
In the current fiscal woes, Beijing’s zero-base budgeting ambition shoots for a sustainable fiscal future. The aim is better allocation, not austerity. The model seeks to send money where most needed, while cutting waste, working with, not against stimulus action. This fiscal experiment, perhaps the most far-reaching yet under Xi, seeks to modernise how local areas spend—habits set in stone for decades.
Hefty tariffs have disabled most PRC–US trade; more blows are likely from Washington in other sectors: PRC experts like Liu Yuanchun 刘元春 and Sun Lipeng 孙立鹏 warn of US restrictions on currency and international payments
A new tool in Beijing’s scitech financing kit has emerged. A pilot, allowing financial asset investment companies (AICs) to engage in direct equity investments, was expanded during the Two Sessions 2025. AICs can now set up subsidiaries in 18 provinces and invest 10 percent of their assets there. Insurance funds, ever a target of expanding patient capital, may now invest in AICs, providing a new fundraising channel for their investment operations.