China Briefing | Analysis: What President Xi Jinping’s new leadership team means for China’s economy

Rather than bringing uncertainty, the Chinese president’s extraordinary rise and his unexpected but pragmatic political appointments pave the way for a shift in focus to market-oriented reform

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China’s new Politburo Standing Committee: Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Han Zheng, President Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Yang and Zhao Leji. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 28 Oct 2017Updated: 2:28am, 30 Oct 2017

Now that President Xi Jinping has become China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, what does his elevated position, and the rest of the leadership line-up revealed on Wednesday, mean for the economy? More specifically, will he and his new cohort of officials do a much better job of pushing for market-oriented reforms and opening up than in his first term? After all, that is what really matters to investors and businessmen.

Curiously, overseas media reports and analysts have focused mostly on the extraordinary rise of Xi’s power, surmising it could somehow throw China into greater political and economic uncertainty. They have done this because the new leadership line-up was not what they expected.

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Interestingly, they had expected Xi to break the informal age limit conventions to keep Wang Qishan, his right hand man in charge of the successful anti-graft campaign, for another term of five years, but at the same time they expected Xi to play by the unofficial rules in anointing a potential successor to the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s highest governing council.

Neither of those scenarios has played out, as Xi has chosen to value political stability and continuity when considering the key appointments to the 25-member Politburo and the seven-member standing committee.

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Even Xi’s decision not to include a potential successor in the standing committee, which has triggered much speculation about Xi’s intentions, could prove pragmatic from a historical perspective.