IT CERTAINLY IS refreshing to see the honesty with which Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao has addressed that vexed question of how long it will take China to open its capital account.
It will take a long, long time, he said in so many words at an economic seminar in Beijing on Friday and, coming from a man believed to be the premier-in-waiting, we can take that as official policy.
Of course, he did not say it in plain speech. That would be too much to ask. Instead he called for a 'gradual approach' and mentioned worries about the negative impact of short-term speculators on financial markets as well as the political and social unrest to which their activities could lead.
'The prerequisites for the prudent opening of capital accounts should include a good climate for economic development . . . a sound financial system and effective financial supervision,' he said.
Let us take that back to front. The accounts this newspaper carries almost every day of dubious corporate doings in the mainland tell you that effective financial supervision is still a dream. Ditto a sound financial system. It is a good question whether the mainland has a financial system at all, let alone a sound one.
You might say the criterion of a good climate for economic development has been met, but if worries about what speculators can do to it are even in part to be taken into consideration then officialdom has reason to put it off forever and this leads to Mr Wen's 'gradual approach', which I take as standard political doublespeak for 'not over my dead body'.
I call this honesty because it implicitly recognises that opening the capital account is not just one of a series of financial reforms, like opening a stock market or introducing a bankruptcy law. It is the ultimate big change.