In the Chinese Communist Party’s five-year political cycle, the Third Plenum meeting is usually where long-term economic blueprints are unveiled. With the Chinese economy under greater strain than at any point in the last 40 years, many analysts had hoped this month’s Plenum would provide greater clarity on how these issues would be resolved. Instead, the meeting’s set of seemingly contradictory messages left many perplexed or in downright despair. A propaganda poster from 1982 paying t