How Russia’s Ukraine Invasion Weighs on China’s Economy

China's top political leaders are meeting in Beijing this week and have announced the country’s new GDP goal for 2022, a major benchmark that Premier Li Keqiang has said will remain around 5.5%, the lowest target in decades.

After two years of grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing is also dealing with turmoil in real estate markets and bankruptcies of large developers, rising debt and continuing trade tensions with the United States. But leaders are saying little publicly about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will affect economic growth.

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Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that although China has greatly strengthened its innovation in recent years, it does not have the ability to maintain its momentum if it decouples from the West.

“China's economy is still heavily reliant on engagement with the rest of the world, and it is not self-sufficient in advanced technology areas that are critical for its own security and prosperity,” she told VOA Mandarin.

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