We could almost hear the sound of discontent when the curtain of the Plenum was finally drawn. The communiqué from the Plenum contains little detail on reform, but compensates with its lofty ideals. It touches briefly on the market’s decisive role in the economy, recognises the balance between the state and private sectors, as well as the importance of the constitution and the rule of law.

Investors are disappointed, and rightly so, as their hopes have been fanned by the mysterious pre-release of the 383 document outlining the blueprints and the details of a reform. But instead of reading between the lines of the ambiguous statement to infer the eventual policies as pundits do, we refer to the prededence of the communiqué from the historic 1978 Plenum. Indeed, the 1978 Plenum communiqué was never meant to be precise.