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China‘s leaders are vowing to reduce reliance on foreign advanced technology and spur stronger domestic demand as it weathers high winds amid elevated trade tensions with the U.S. An outline of the ruling Communist Party’s blueprint for the next five years was laid out in a 5,000-word communique released Thursday after a four-day top level meeting in Beijing, just days ahead of planned talks between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. Five-year plans are a throwback to the days of Soviet-style central planning. China still relies heavily on them to map out policy priorities and decide on funding. Party plenum meetings like the one held this week are also used to rally the party rank-and-file around Xi’s leadership. Thursday’s announcement signaled no major policy shifts. Despite mounting trade tensions, China intends to remain a global manufacturing power while building stronger economic growth at home. China gains confidence in the trade war The communique does not refer directly to the trade war between Beijing and Washington, but warns of rising uncertainties and unforeseen factors. Han Wenxiu, a senior party official in financial and economic policy, told reporters Friday that China is well placed to handle such risks in an era when great-power competition is becoming more complex and the international balance of power is undergoing profound adjustments. He predicted China’s strength and international status would grow in the next five years. There is always opportunity in crisis and crisis can be turned into opportunity, Han said. Chi Lo, an Asia Pacific senior market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said an emphasis in the communique on substantial improvements in scientific and technological self-reliance likely reflects confidence that China is less vulnerable to pressure from the trade war. The party vowed to achieve markedly stronger international influence by 2035 and to safeguard the multilateral trading system, portraying Beijing as a defender of free trade, noted Leah Fahy, a China economist at Capital Economics. Domestic economic challenges remain A downturn in the property sector that began while China was still in the midst of disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic has sapped consumer confidence, reducing household wealth and leading to widespread layoffs. Chinas communique emphasized the strategic need to expand domestic demand. The government has already encouraged investment to modernize factories and paid subsidies to people who replace old appliances and vehicles with new ones. The economies of major countries are all driven by domestic demand and the market is the most scarce resource in todays world, said Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, Beijings main planning agency. But manufacturing capacity exceeds demand in many industries. That has caused damaging price wars and led companies to boost exports, adding to trade tensions with the U.S., the European Union and others. Even with strong government support, the economy grew 4.8% in the last quarter, the slowest pace in a year. Factory activity shrank for the sixth consecutive month in September, as domestic demand remained sluggish. China’s leaders have stuck to their goal of attaining the status of a mid-level developed country” and doubling the size of the economy in 2020 by 2035. That implies an average annual growth rate of about 4-5% in the next decade, said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank. China will remain a manufacturing juggernaut China is the worlds biggest manufacturer, accounting for roughly 30% of global production and about a quarter of its overall economy. The new 5-year plan calls for keeping manufacturing at an appropriate level with advanced industries as the backbone. Chinas focus on the manufacturing sector “will remain a top priority, even in the face of overcapacity (and) price wars, said Fahy of Capital Economics. Over the years, Chinese manufacturing has progressed from labor-intensive, low-cost production to higher-value products including electric vehicles, robots and batteries. In coming years, the emphasis will be on advanced manufacturing, said Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley. That includes areas such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, artificial intelligence and next-generation mobile communications, said Zheng, the planning agency chief. These industries are ready to take off, he said. It means that in the next 10 years we will build another high-tech industry in China and this will inject continued impetus to our efforts to achieve Chinese modernization. It’s unclear if China’s commitment to catalyzing more consumer spending and domestic investment will make much of a dent in its exports. Chinese companies like BYD and CATL have become global leaders in EV battery technology and production. China plays a pivotal role in global supply chains and has shown it can control access to rare earths, materials used in many products. The Chinese government sees manufacturing as a core issue in security and geopolitical leverage over other countries, added Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis. Xi continues to centralize power The four-day plenum was marked by relatively low attendance. Out of 205 full members in the elite Communist Party central committee, only 168 were there, according to the communique. Many have been purged in anti-corruption campaigns that also enforce loyalty to Xi within the party. An “unprecedented proportion of central committee members are in political trouble,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institutes Center for China Analysis. The meeting appointed Gen. Zhang Shengmin as China’s second highest ranking general. He replaced He Weidong, who was ousted from the party along with eight other senir officials in a recent anti-corruption drive. As the party continues to centralize power, the political position faced by Xi and his dominance within the party is still relatively secure said Xin Sun, a senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at Kings College London. Chan Ho-Him, Huizhong Wu, and Ken Moritsugu, Associated Press Associated Press researchers Yu Bing and Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed.
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Snack maker Mondelez is using a new generative AI tool to cut costs for the production of marketing content by 30% to 50%, a senior executive told Reuters. The packaged food manufacturer began developing the tool last year with IT firm Accenture and expects that it will be capable of making short TV ads that would be ready to air as soon as next year’s holiday season, and potentially for the 2027 Super Bowl, said Jon Halvorson, Mondelezs global senior vice president of consumer experience. The Cadbury chocolate producer has invested more than $40 million in the tool, Halvorson said, adding that savings would grow if the tool is able to make more elaborate videos. Faced with tariffs and shrinking shopper budgets, Mondelez, like other consumer goods companies, is looking to adopt AI to slash fees paid to advertising agencies, and speed up how long it takes to develop and sell new products. Rivals such as macaroni-and-cheese maker Kraft Heinz and Coca-Cola have also been trying out AI for ads. Coke in 2024 ran AI-created holiday ads, though the computer-created people in them were ridiculed by some consumers for lacking real emotion. Mondelez is not yet putting human likenesses in its AI-created content. It is using content generated by the new tool on social media for its Chips Ahoy cookies in the U.S. and Milka chocolate in Germany. An eight-second Milka video shows waves of chocolate rippling over a wafer, along with different backgrounds depending on which consumer Mondelez is targeting. The cost to do animations “is in the hundreds of thousands,” Halvorson said. “This type of set-up is orders of magnitude smaller.” In the U.S., Oreo will use the tool for product pages on Amazon and Walmart in November. Mondelez plans to use the tool in the coming months for Lacta chocolate and Oreo in Brazil, and Cadbury in the UK, Halvorson said. Tina Vaswani, vice president of digital enablement and data for the company, said humans will always check what the tool produces to avoid any mishaps. Mondelez has rules prohibiting highlighting unhealthy eating habits, vaping, over-consumption, emotionally manipulative language and the use of offensive stereotypes, according to a document shared by the Chicago-based company. Jessica DiNapoli, Reuters
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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Since mortgage rates spiked in 2022, many large homebuilders have tried to make homes more affordable by shrinking them, stripping them down, or pushing buyers farther out. Allan Merrill, CEO of Atlanta-based Beazer Homesa publicly traded builder with a $710 million market capitalization and the 23rd-largest single-family homebuilder last yearbelieves thats the wrong approach. The way I think about it is, I dont want to sell you a cheaper home, Merrill told ResiClub last week. I want to sell you a home that costs you less every month to live inand one that will still hold its value five or ten years from now. Beazers plan focuses on three key areas: lowering the cost to power, insure, and finance a home. If you can take $150 or $200 a month out of your operating cost [monthly payment], thats real affordability, Merrill said. Were not trying to sell you less housewere trying to sell you a better, more efficient one. Allan Merrill [Photo: Beazer Homes] Affordability lever #1: Cutting energy bills through design, not gimmicks The centerpiece of Beazers affordability push is its energy efficiency standard. Every Beazer home is built to the Energy Rated Valuea benchmark that exceeds building codes and emphasizes insulation, air filtration, and low humidity levels. We pride ourselves on building beyond [local] energy codes so you are buying a home from the future today, Merrill says. You dont want to buy a home thats functionally obsolete the day you close. Beazer sees this as more than a sustainability moveits a financial one. Lower energy bills directly reduce a homeowners monthly cost of living, which Merrill calls material savings. Its $100 a month, $200 a month on the margin, he says. The present value of that is in the thousands of dollars, but over the life of the loan could be over $30,000 [in savings]. Beazer says its homes are designed to feel tangibly different: quieter, better insulated, and healthier. It feels different in here, Merrill says. It sounds different. It smells different. A home with double-filtered fresh air and low humidity literally feels different. Merrill says this is all underscored in Beazers new campaign, “Enjoy the Great Indoors.” Affordability lever #2: Lowering insurance costs through an in-house agency The second affordability lever comes not from the home itself, but from the insurance that protects it. Beazer has its own insurance agencyand it gives away the profits. Beazer wanted to have an agency to organize the proposals from the different firms, Merrill explains, adding: But that entity distributes its profits to our charitable foundationand thats actually what we do with title insurance as well. The Beazer insurance agency operates in-house, handling the paperwork and logistics of homeowners and title insurance while keeping buyers costs competitive. Because it isnt structured to make money for Beazer, it can pass along more savings to the buyer. Its a small but symbolic move in a business where hidden transaction fees are common. We dont need to make money on every piece of the home purchase, he says. Were trying to make homeownership more attainable. Affordability lever #3: Reducing mortgage costs with an in-house competition platform The third pillar of Beazers affordability strategy is the companys in-house mortgage platform, which hosts a marketplace of competing lenders. In mortgage, there are literally no economics to us, Merrill says. We are not lenders, we are not brokers, we are in no way in the mortgage business. We have a platform where the banks can compete effectively, directly for the buyers. Unlike some other builders, Beazer doesnt have a captive finance arm that earns interest or fees, he says. Instead, the company uses its internal program to connect buyers directly to multiple banksand takes no profit from the transaction. That competition, Merrill says, often drives rates below what buyers would find on their own. Today, youll see permanent buydowns in the 4.99% range [in many markets], down from the low sixes, he explains. Every 25 basis points costs about a pointbut were not adding a margin on top of that. By building both the insurance and mortgage processes in-housebut running them as service models, not profit centersBeazer is says its able to lower monthly payments for its homebuyers. Building forward, not backward What some other buildersthose going smaller or cutting back on qualityare doing, Merrill argues, would be like Apple bringing back the iPhone 13 or 14 instead of rolling out the iPhone 18. I dont think thats a great long-term strategy, he says. Merrill said the companys approach differs from many of its publicly traded peers, which have leaned on aggressive incentives or cheaper design packages to maintain volume in a high-rate environment. In an attempt to reduce cost, what we see a lot in the industry is were effectively going backward. Beazer, instead, is investing to make each home iteration better than the lasteven as affordability pressures mount. We have continued to innovate, Merrill said. I want to deliver the version [iPhone] 19 and version 20, and have their feature be your low cost of operation. Instead of saying, Good news, you can buy something that was available five years ago. Beazer Homes: Policymakers could help out if they lowered building fees In Merrills view, the housing affordability strain isnt just about interest ratesits about decades o underinvestment in infrastructure and an overreliance on permit and impact fees that push costs onto new homebuyers. In Northern California, its $140,000 [spent by us] before we even break groundjust in [government] fees, Merrill said. Across the country, its $60,000 or $70,000. That number used to be under $10,000 [per home]. He compares having new builds shoulder a disproportionate share of government revenue through impact and permit fees to the way the U.S. runs budget deficits: Weve been living on credit, but instead of running up a big deficit, weve just shifted it to the next generation of homebuyers, he said. Then we complain about why they cant buy homes. Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill is among the speakers at ResiDay 2025. ResiClub is hosting the one-day conference on Friday, November 7, in New York City.
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