Communist Party is already on the move as the rest of the world grapples with the pandemic

China is pursuing a construction campaign to boost output at factories returning to work after the outbreak as reported by reuters

For China, this is not just any economic crash. It is one the country’s leaders have steeled against for more than a decade.

China’s top policy planners have long assessed the geopolitical ramifications of the next big economic crisis – the one that would bring their decades of miraculous growth to a halt.

Official policy papers reflect Beijing’s awareness that this event would not only serve as a critical test of the Chinese Communist Party’s domestic rule, but could reshuffle the balance of powers among China and Western nations.

“After a big crisis, what is redistributed is not merely wealth within a country, but the relative power of all nations,” wrote China’s chief economic architect Liu He, who has since risen to vice premier, in a 2013 study of recessions.

China reported a 6.8 per cent drop in economic output for the first quarter of 2020, its first contraction on record since the death of party founder Mao Zedong in 1976. In recent weeks, president Xi Jinpinghas launched a construction campaign akin to that seen in America in response to the Great Depression, while touting poverty relief and investment in advanced technology to help boost both the output of coronavirus-hit factories and consumer spending.

Since Mr Xi came to power in 2012, he has fast-tracked political preparations for the end of economic growth. He has flooded the airwaves with wartime-esque propaganda that lauds individual sacrifice for the national interest, while quashing budding pockets of dissent before they could grow.