China’s economic shift may hinge on what migrant workers do next

China’s Politburo has just set the country’s economic priorities for the second half of the year. The meeting took place against the backdrop of gross domestic product growth slowing to 4.3 per cent in the second quarter, its weakest since late 2022, and an increasingly K-shaped economy: strong exports and fast-growing hi-tech industries on one side, with weak domestic consumption, softening investment and slower growth elsewhere on the other. The official readout did not describe the economy as