Lack of specifics mars Beijing's reform push

The delay in launching a landmark scheme to allow cross-border trading of stocks between Shanghai and Hong Kong and the opaque decision-making process around it speak volumes about Beijing's unwillingness to engage with the international investors it needs to help fulfil its ambitious reform agenda.

Huge amounts of international capital had flowed into Hong Kong in anticipation of the stock connect scheme, also known as the "through train", which the market had earlier expected to be launched yesterday. However, the Hong Kong stock exchange confirmed on Sunday that it had yet to receive the green light from Beijing.

The central government had not directly communicated much about the through train to the public, leaving most of the announcements to the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Shanghai, said Francis Cheung, CLSA's managing director of China-Hong Kong strategy.

"The Chinese government does a good job of communicating the broad outlines of reform, but is not very clear what the execution is," Cheung said. "That is my big concern. You have a lot of official statements, but you don't know the timing and details."

Diana Choyleva, the head of macroeconomic research at Lombard Street Research, a think tank based in London, said the central government did not appear to "have any strategy of communicating their reform plans to the international community".

Although President Xi Jinping announced a sweeping overhaul of the mainland economy in November last year, observers in China and abroad had found reasons to wonder what shape the reforms would take and whether they could be put into full effect, said a recent report by the Asia Society and Rhodium Group, a US consultancy.

"The meaning of this imperative is understood differently in Tokyo, Washington and Brussels, let alone in Beijing. The complete picture of what leaders intend is in flux," it said.