Never mind China’s slowing economy, Chinese media ‘cares’ more about U.S. inflation, recession
“China’s economy is slowing,” LA Times wrote on Sept. 11. “China Braces for a Slowdown That Could Be Even Worse Than 2020,” Bloomberg News declared on Sept. 14. After the opening in Beijing of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the Wall Street Journal posted on Oct. 17 “Xi Jinping's Ideological Ambition Challenges China's Economic Prospects.” Among the reasons for China’s slowing economy, it included zero Covid policy, shrinking work force, rising debt levels as well as Mr. Xi’s emphasis on party ideology, national security, and greater state control over the economy. It also quoted Rhodium Group that China would struggle to maintain growth of over 3% annually by the middle of this decade.
Average readers of China’s state media, however, would never see news reports such as these. Any troubling economy they have been reading about is the U.S. one, with its record inflation, record national debt, looming recession, and Americans’ economic hardship.
On Sept. 16, PBS News had a story based on a NPR and Marist Poll titled, “Most Americans say they cut back on recent spending as prices rose,” stating that 72% of Americans had cut back at least one item to meet their monthly expenses in the past six months, and also quoting a retired American woman talking about her grown children, “They count every dime.” On the 19th, China’s Reference News followed up with a partial translation of the PBS piece with a new title, “More American feeling inflation pain and ‘counting every dime.’”
On Oct 6, China Daily published a piece from its New York correspondent titled, “US debt hits record as cost to service it rises.” It quoted an interview with Raymond Hill, a senior lecturer of finance at Emory University, “The longer-run issue is the question: How will we know when the debt is too high to be sustained?" and “We will only know how much is too much when it is too late." It also quoted from a New York Times story from Oct. 4, “U.S. National Debt Tops $31 Trillion for First Time.”
On Oct. 7, Fox News had a story titled, “Some US workers delaying retirement due to inflation, rising cost of living: survey.” It was a survey of 1,700 Americans including 1,000 retirement plan participants by the Nationwide Retirement Institute, which found that 73% of respondents said they planned to delay retirement because of insufficient income. On Oct. 10, People’s Daily Overseas Edition posted a shortened write-up, or translate-up, of the Fox piece, with its own title, “American survey: High inflation increases burden of living. Some Americans plan to postpone retirement.”
On Oct. 13, China News ran a piece titled, “With debt so high, U.S. can’t make ends meet and will scourge the world.” It used the data from the PETER G. PETERSON FOUNDATION in this statement, “The $31 trillion debt is equivalent to $236,000 per American household and $93,000 per person. If every U.S. household paid $1,000 per month toward covering the debt, it would take 19 years to pay down the sum.”
On Oct. 15, Washington Examiner ran a piece titled “Biden's inflation disaster,” which gave President Joe Biden an "F" for economic policy, especially on inflation, and called out the Federal Reserve as losing the war against inflation. It also included the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the CPI rising 0.4% in September, and the index over last 12 months increasing by 8.2%. On Oct. 18, People’s Daily reprinted from its overseas edition a selective and abbreviated translation of the Washington Examiner story with this title, “U.S. media gave low marks to federal government’s economic policy: Inflation continues to aggravate and American people suffer.”
On Oct. 17, the Wall Street Journal posted a podcast piece titled, “Economists Expect U.S. Recession Amid Persistently High Inflation.” It was the takeaway from a WSJ survey of 66 economists conducted in the second week of October. Of those economists, the podcast said, 63% forecast a recession over the next year, up from 49% in July. The podcast also said that the recession the economists were forecasting was quite shallow and short. Right away, on the same day, People’s Daily posted a piece from its overseas edition with the title, “U.S. survey: 63% economists predict recession in U.S. next year.” It quoted the Wall Street Journal piece, especially the forecast of the recession, but not how the recession would be shallow and short.