President Hu Jintao's remarks, at a weekend meeting of the ruling 25-member Politburo, appeared on the front page of the party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily. It was his bluntest message yet delivered on the crisis to China's 1.3 billion people and more than 70 million members of the party.
The subtext of his speech was the increasing risk of social unrest caused by China's rising unemployment, as a slump in exports leads to factory closures and a fall in property sales results in abandoned construction projects.
The President, who is also the head of the Communist Party, said: “In this coming period, we will starkly confront the effects of the sustained deepening of the international financial crisis and pressure as global economic growth clearly slows.” He said that the slowdown would “steadily weaken our country's traditional competitive advantages”.
So the Chinese are saying there will be hard times coming. What a breath of fresh air.
www.timesonline.co.uk
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