What will President Xi Jinping do to try to “Trump-proof” China’s economy? This week, we might get some insights into his plans.

Just as US President Donald Trump doubles his new tariffs on China’s exports on Tuesday – from 10 per cent to an effective 20 per cent – China will start its annual “Two Sessions” meetings of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC).

Xi Jinping is very aware of just how unpredictable Donald Trump can be. Credit: AP

The CPPCC is a group of more than 2000 members, drawn from across China’s society, which supports and advises the Communist Party. The NPC is China’s most senior legislative body, in effect its national parliament. The CPPCC meets on Tuesday, with the NPC starting its sessions on Wednesday.

With an increasingly export-driven economy exposed, not just to Trump’s tariffs but to increasingly protectionist sentiments in China’s other major markets, there is an expectation that the NPC will pivot even more strongly towards trying to revive its weak domestic consumption and respond to the disinflation that threatens to trap the economy in a deflationary spiral.

Any shifts in economic policies are likely to be modest, as has been the case in recent years. Beijing needs to keep something up its sleeve because, so far, Trump has justified his tariffs on China by linking them to China’s production of the precursor chemicals for fentanyl rather than trade imbalances.

With an all-encompassing Trump administration review of trade issues due next month, there is still potential for the president to impose the 60 per cent duty on imports from China that he threatened during his election campaign, or at least use that threat as leverage to do a trade deal with China on his terms (even though China didn’t deliver........

© The Sydney Morning Herald