During the Third Session of the 14th Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress on 19 January, Governor of Jiangsu Xu Kunlin revealed that the Province’s GDP totalled ¥13.7 trillion in 2024, representing an increase of 5.

Gao’s sin? Saying that China may have grown just 2% over the last two or three years, less than half the rate Xi’s government claims. The reason Gao is allegedly being silenced is for shining a brighter-than-usual spotlight on one of the biggest perception problems facing Xi’s Communist Party: that China routinely cooks the GDP books.

Sales of consumer goods grew a moderate 3.5 percent, while hospitality sectors continued to outperform discretionary segments such as apparel, gold and jewelry.