China is giving its economy a big shot in the arm

China plans to spend 25trn yuan ($3.7trn)—about 3% of cumulative GDP through 2030—on “six networks”: water, electricity, computing, communications, logistics and urban pipelines. The Politburo flagged the plan in July; the central bank announced cheaper financing in September. It is cast both as hardware for great-power competition (power, water-cooled computing and communications for robots, drones and autonomous cars) and as stimulus for weak domestic demand that could absorb excess saving, narrow the trade surplus and rebalance the world economy. Indicative buckets include about 5.5trn on power, 6trn on water, 4trn on computing, 2.7trn on logistics and at least 1.3trn on 5G/6G; six of ten data-centre clusters are to sit in energy-rich western regions. China already has 7,700km of utility tunnels and plans 5trn yuan for 770,000km of pipes. Risks are familiar: infrastructure already exceeded 84% of GDP by 2013; past stimulus produced vanity projects and hidden local debt. The accompanying Leaders piece argues the push is more defensible than bridges-to-nowhere but is still no substitute for housing repair and consumption reform (pensions, child benefits), without which “peak China” is only postponed.