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Hi there, I'm Ed Butler.

Welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service.

What's it like being a Chinese consumer these days?

The world's second largest economy is seeing sluggish spending,

and there are now fears of deflation there. Tens of millions of citizens

find themselves facing unrepayable debt.

How can I repay such a large debt if my money is frozen? This week, the ruling party is

drawing up a new five-year economic plan. There's talk of stimulus, a bailout for the

Chinese consumer. But will that really happen? My hunch is that they're going to double down on

what they're doing already, which is unrealistically high growth rates, industrial policy,

at the expense of household, stimulus and so on. The rhetoric is changing, but the actions

really are kind of stuck, I think. China's economic troubles. That's Business Daily from the BBC.

This is Mr. Lin. He's a business owner in his 60s in Shanghai. He's asked us not to give his full name for fear of reprisal from the authorities.

His debt story is one that's become increasingly common for millions of middle-class Chinese.

We're a content innovation company,

which means a lot of our work involves research and development

in cultural and educational fields.

My company was founded in 2006, and by 2019, we were doing very well.

Our programs were popular in many schools and kindergartens,

but then the pandemic hit, which had a huge impact on.

During the COVID pandemic, there were numerous restrictions imposed in cities like Shanghai.

...