China Quietly Abandons Goal of Overtaking U.S. Economy Chinese leader Xi Jinping appeared to revise his long-term economic outlook when he opened a major political event over the weekend, hinting at modest growth that may see China fail to surpass the U.S. Beijing's two-step plan to build what it calls a "great modern socialist country in all respects" by 2049, the centennial of the People's Republic of China, involves first raising levels of public wealth and doubling the national economy by 2035.Xi addressed the issue over the weekend, telling party delegates that the government would "optimize our population development strategy by establishing a policy system to support birth rates and reduce the costs of childbirth, parenting and education."Despite the political pageantry surrounding the party congress, some 200 million people across China were experiencing some form of restricted movement last week—citywide or neighborhood-specific lockdowns, as well as a continuation of the country's mandatory quarantine policy for domestic and international travelers.However, it quickly became clear that zero COVID's strong ideological links to Xi's personal achievements meant the zero-tolerance approach could be framed as nothing but a total success and would need to remain in place going forward—China's president said as much in his speech."My guess is that both Xi and [Chinese Premier] Li Keqiang understand that as far as the most crucial problem of economic slowdown—structural pathology of the property sector—remains unresolved sufficiently, it'll"