Li Qiang, Premier of China and the chair of China's State Council, delivers opening remarks at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, June 27, 2023. Credit: World Economic Forum via Flickr
There’s usually a serious message when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council jointly publish a document, as they did just over two weeks ago. Dedicated to the development and expansion of China’s private economy, this particular document’s release came hard on the heels of data showing that the much hoped for economic recovery in China this year had stalled, or become 'tortuous' as the Politburo later said.
The members of the Politburo of the 18th CCP Central Committee at the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Congress, November 12, 2013. Credit: CGTN
No one would dispute that restoring confidence and dynamism to the private sector makes sense, but Beijing has said this before. Will this time be different?
Exactly ten years ago, at the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Congress — a political forum often dedicated to the economy — the CCP pledged to give market forces and competition a ‘decisive role’ in the economy and in the
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
