China looks to consumers to drive economic rebound

By JOE McDONALD
AP Business Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s agenda for this month’s meeting of the ceremonial national legislature: Revive the economy by encouraging consumers to spend more now that severe anti-virus controls have ended. Install a government of Xi loyalists to strengthen the ruling Communist Party’s control over the economy and society. China’s most powerful figure in decades has no formal role in the National People’s Congress, which opens Sunday. But his political aura looms over every event after Xi, 69, awarded himself a third five-year term as party general secretary in October, possibly making himself leader for life.