Expectations mixed as China's third plenum meeting begins

As about 400 of the nation's most powerful people meet in Beijing today for a key Communist Party meeting, hopes are high and the stakes huge. But clarity will probably be painfully lacking.

The tortuous name of the meeting itself - the third plenary session of the Communist Party's 18th Central Committee - baffles most people. Historically, landmark changes have been set in motion at the meeting.

Already, some are comparing this four-day session with the ones in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping kick-started the open-door reforms, and 1993, when then-premier Zhu Rongji endorsed the "socialist market economy".

The optimism seems to stem from the launch of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the release of a proposal, dubbed "383", by the Development Research Centre of the State Council.

The blueprint, written by President Xi Jinping's reform-minded adviser, Liu He , and former premier Zhu's secretary, Li Wei , carries political clout and listed several goals, including the internationalisation of the yuan within a decade and the liberalisation of interest rates within three years. But while these hint at the meeting's general thrust, it is still very much guesswork.

Thirty-five years since Deng's famous 1978 plenum that transformed China into the world's second-largest economy, the decision-making process at the top remains opaque. From now until the meeting ends on Tuesday, little information will be released to the public.