China’s premier calls for stabilizing external demand as growth sputters to three-year low

When your domestic engine starts coughing, you look for fuel elsewhere. That’s essentially what Chinese Premier Li Qiang communicated on August 17 when he convened a State Council meeting centered on one overriding theme: stabilizing external demand to prop up an economy that’s losing momentum faster than policymakers would like. China’s Q2 2026 GDP came in at 4.3% year-on-year growth. That’s down from 5.0% in Q1 and represents the slowest quarterly pace the world’s second-largest economy has posted in over three years. The numbers behind the nervousness China’s full-year 2026 growth target sits at 4.5% to 5%. That range is the lowest the government has set in more than thirty years, a quiet admission that the era of effortless expansion is well and truly over. Domestic consumption remains stubbornly weak. Private investment is subdued. Energy costs are climbing. Exports have been a relative bright spot, which helps explain why Premier Li is now leaning hard into trade stabilization rather than doubling down on the domestic consumption playbook that has underperformed. What Premier Li actually said The State Council meeting emphasized expanding international trade cooperation and p...