Liu Yonghao, a senior member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and founder of agribusiness giant New Hope Group, has proposed issuing a universal ¥500 consumption voucher to every resident as a blunt instrument to revive household spending. Speaking at a media briefing, Liu argued that current voucher programmes favor large ecommerce platforms and big-box retailers while neglecting neighbourhood shops, markets and low‑income, flexibly employed workers.
Drawing on international experience — he singled out Malaysia’s ID‑based, economy‑wide voucher scheme — Liu suggested a national rollout led by qualified national financial institutions with technology partners handling distribution and redemption. He estimated that issuing ¥500 to roughly 1.4 billion people would cost about ¥700 billion and could stimulate almost ¥20 trillion of consumption, supporting an estimated 14 million service‑sector jobs.
Liu framed the proposal as a way to correct what he described as a structural bias in past stimulus measures, which he says have been “heavy on large transactions and light on small and micro” businesses. Recent domestic programmes — including trade‑in incentives for household goods and locally coordinated voucher drives during the Lunar New Year — have shown multiple‑times leverage in driving purchases, officials say, but their benefits have not been evenly distributed.
Implementation would require several practical choices that will determine its effectiveness: whether vouchers are truly unrestricted across industries, how to prevent fraud and resale, the balance between central and local fiscal responsibility, and whether distribution via national IDs will raise privacy concerns. Proponents argue that universal, unconditional vouchers reduce administrative targeting costs and political friction, while critics warn of fiscal cost, substitution effects and possible inflationary pressure if supply cannot meet sudden demand.
Beyond mechanics, the proposal carries political significance. A pitch from a prominent business figure and CPPCC delegate signals private‑sector interest in large, visible demand‑stimulation measures that benefit small firms and households, not just conglomerates. For Beijing, which has repeatedly sought to pivot growth toward consumption, the idea is attractive: a relatively rapid, administrable tool to shore up demand and sustain jobs in the services sector.
Whether the proposal moves from advisory text to policy will depend on Beijing’s appetite for a sizeable fiscal intervention and on macro conditions such as inflation, fiscal space and growth targets. If adopted, a universal voucher scheme could reallocate stimulus benefits toward smaller merchants and urban informal workers, but it would also test China’s capacity to roll out large‑scale digital payments securely and equitably.