China unveils policy agenda, but few details on implementation

2024-07-21 13:46:20

The document states that the market will play a decisive role in resource allocation and the government will work on legislation to improve conditions for the private sector, and mentions tax, land and financial reforms.

China on Sunday released a document adopted by the Communist Party’s Central Committee that contains policy goals ranging from developing industry to improving the business environment. The 60-point document was released following a “plenary session,” a closed-door meeting of the Central Committee led by President Xi Jinping that takes place roughly every five years. The July 15-18 session comes as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with a severe real estate crisis, growing debt and weak consumer and business confidence indexes. It also faces trade tensions over China’s export dominance, which has worried world leaders.

The document states that the market will play a decisive role in resource allocation and that the government will work on legislation to improve conditions for the private sector, and mentions tax, land and financial reforms. It also encourages the promotion of affordable housing, improved employment opportunities for young people and higher living standards for the elderly.

A decade ago, similar goals were thwarted by fears of capital flight.

As with most such documents, there is no explanation of how China’s leaders intend to achieve the goals, which means contradictory policies, something party officials acknowledged on Friday. Beijing has never explained, for example, how it will get consumers to spend more when resources are mainly going to producers and infrastructure, or how the government plans to boost growth while reducing debt.

At a 2013 plenary session, Beijing unveiled a political plan with similar goals to those in Sunday’s document, as well as ambitions to open up financial markets and make domestic consumption a more important engine of growth. Many of those projects were forced to shut down in 2015 amid concerns regarding capital flight. Many analysts believe national security concerns have pushed China in the opposite direction in recent years, leading to a tightening of control over much of the economy and a regulatory crackdown on some sectors, such as technology and finance.

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