China's economy is rising, but many citizens are left behind, analysts say

China's National Bureau of Statistics released data on its 2025 GDP growth Monday. Analysts say it reveals strong economic growth for the country, but ordinary people still face deep challenges.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

How much have America's trade wars affected the Chinese economy? Ashish Valentine reports on China's gross domestic product.

ASHISH VALENTINE: Facing rows of journalists, the director of China's National Bureau of Statistics, Kang Yi, took to the podium for a moment that defines China's relationship with the rest of the world once a year.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KANG YI: (Non-English language spoken).

VALENTINE: He went on to drop the key figure economists and business leaders had been waiting for. China's GDP grew by 5% last year, exactly in line with what China's leading economic planners wanted to see. A remarkable feat, Dan Wang, an analyst at Eurasia Group, says, given the pressure China faced in a trade war with the U.S.

DAN WANG: China has not just survived the trade war with the U.S. It, in fact, thrived. President Trump wanted to be tough with China but got punched in the face.

VALENTINE: China more than made up the loss in exports to the U.S. with growth to the rest of the world.

WANG: But when it comes to domestic demand, I think President Xi will be quite disappointed.

VALENTINE: Andrew Collier, a senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School, says a particular pain point is the housing market.

ANDREW COLLIER: Property investment was down 17.2%, one of the worst showings in months.

VALENTINE: Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says that means trouble for homeowners. From the early 2000s till 2021, China's housing sector was booming.

NICHOLAS LARDY: As many as 50% of the urban population was buying multiple houses, buying at least a second house, and some were buying three houses.

VALENTINE: He says that's great when prices keep rising, but not when property values started falling in the last few years. And it's not just real estate. Other prices have fallen, too. That hurts corporate earnings and the job market, says the analyst Wang.

WANG: Chinese consumers are not happy because the job security problem is quite severe in China.

VALENTINE: The big picture, many analysts say, is that although China's economy is rising high, not everyone's riding that wave.

For NPR News, Ashish Valentine in Taipei.

(SOUNDBITE OF FLEETWOOD MAC'S "ALBATROSS")

Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.