‘Likonomics’? No, Xi rules that Party control and favored monopolies trump free market policies

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com

The Beijing propaganda machinery has gone into overdrive to advertise the upcoming plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, which is scheduled to endorse an economic-reform blueprint.

China’s President Xi Jinping, left, and Premier Li Kiqiang in Beijing.  /AP
China’s President Xi Jinping, left, and Premier Li Kiqiang in Beijing. /AP

Yu Zhengsheng, the No. 4-ranked member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), has asserted that “the scale and depth of [up-coming] reforms will be unprecedented.”

The state media has already publicized the eight areas of liberalization that the Central Committee plenum, which will be held on Nov. 9 to 12, will endorse. They include financial and taxation reforms, the abolition of some state fiats, restructuring of a number of state-owned enterprise groupings, boosting the social-welfare system, as well as measures to facilitate urbanization and to boost consumer spending.

In theory, Premier Li Keqiang, who is deemed a market-oriented reformer, is in charge of the whole liberalization exercise.

Read complete article.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login