What to Expect for China’s Economy in 2026?

Video Description

December 16, 2025 — China’s annual Central Economic Work Conference is the country’s most important policy-setting meeting, reviewing the past year’s economic performance and establishing the priorities that guide macroeconomic strategy for the year ahead. As China enters 2026 facing uneven recovery, soft domestic demand, a stressed property sector, and rising structural pressures, the signals emerging from this year’s conference provide critical insight into how the leadership intends to navigate slowing momentum and recalibrate its fiscal, industrial, and reform agenda. In this program, Arthur Kroeber, Founding Partner and Head of Research at Gavekal Dragonomics; Michael Hirson, CCA Honorary Fellow on Chinese Economy and Technology and Managing Director and Head of China research at 22V Research; and Xiangwei Wang, former Editor-in-Chief of the South China Morning Post, join Lizzi C. Lee, CCA Fellow on Chinese Economy, to examine the policy priorities outlined in the conference readout and discuss their implications for China’s economic trajectory in 2026. Together, they analyze how Beijing is approaching fiscal coordination, consumption support, property-market adjustment, and the rollout of “new quality productive forces,” and what these signals mean for businesses, investors, and policymakers. (1 hr., 17 min., 2 sec) Subscribe for more videos like this: http://AsiaSociety.org/YouTube --- Support Asia Society today: http://AsiaSociety.org/Donate --- Subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected: https://asiasociety.org/email-subscriptions --- Facebook: http://facebook.com/AsiaSociety Instagram: http://instagram.com/AsiaSociety Twitter: http://twitter.com/AsiaSociety LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/asia-society/ #asiasociety #asiasocietypolicyinstitute #economy #China #CenterforChinaAnalysis