In our cover this week we consider China’s economic stagnation. Thanks to a shrinking workforce, a property boom that has turned to bust and the disintegration of the global system of free trade, the pillars of China’s decades-long miracle are wobbling. President Xi Jinping’s response is to double down on an audacious plan to remake the country’s economy. But the plan’s contradictions mean it will disappoint China’s people and anger the rest of the world.

Leaders: Xi Jinping’s misguided plan to escape economic stagnation
Finance and economics: How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America
Business: The mind-bending new rules for doing business in China