Shoppers in a street market near Nanjing East Road, one of the major retail areas in Shanghai, in January. Qilai Shen for The New York Times
China’s economy grew 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024, after the country built more factories and exported huge amounts of goods to counter a severe real estate crisis and sluggish spending at home.
But many foreign countries fear that a flood of Chinese shipments could undermine their own manufacturing industries and lead to layoffs.
“China may have found a way to blunt the effects of its housing market crisis,” my colleague Keith Bradsher told us, “but only if Beijing can persuade other countries to buy more manufactured goods than ever from China.”
