Every five years China names hundreds of people as “national model workers”. The latest to receive the honour gathered on April 28th at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People where the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged them to “struggle, struggle, struggle to the end”. He avoided any mention of tariffs brought in by America’s president, Donald Trump, but his use of the old Communist rallying cry was clearly intended to show how people should respond. Amid a trade war that could threaten millions of jobs in China, the message is clear: keep your noses to the grindstone and blame any pain on America.
The Economist
