Chinese President Xi Jinping’s top economic aide fails to inspire at World Economic Forum in Davos
Liu He might have sound personal credentials, but his promises of further reform only parroted Beijing’s pre-approved rhetoric, observers say
Despite his promise to foreign business executives to open up and reform China’s markets “beyond expectations” in 2018, observers struggled to find anything new in the speech made by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s top economic aide Liu He in Davos last week.
“Unlike Xi Jinping’s bold speech from a year ago, Liu gave a safe speech, safe for his domestic and international audiences,” said Scott Kennedy, director of the project on Chinese business and political economy at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“There were multiple references to Xi Jinping, much touting of China’s economic success, and he held out the vague possibility of liberalisation,” he said.
“He entirely avoided the deep tensions between China’s rhetoric in support of free trade and globalisation, and its highly interventionist industrial policy system and policies that he has played a central part in managing over the past five years.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town, Harvard-trained policymaker Liu said China would introduce more reforms to open up its economy this year and that “some measures will exceed the expectations of the international community”.