The Chinese politburo has set out the key themes for China’s economic policy settings moving ahead.
The politburo convened a meeting on 23 April to analyse and research China’s current economic conditions and economic work.
The meeting stressed the need to make arrangements for the “three great battles” (三大攻坚战) of China’s current economic policy, being the effective prevention and dissolution of major risk, targeted poverty alleviation and the prevention and combating of pollution.
The meeting also reiterated Beijing’s commitment to further opening of the Chinese economy and financial sector as flagged at the 2018 Bo’ao Forum for Asia, and most recently embodied by plans to transform the island province of Hainan into a free trade pilot zone as well as the site of China’s first free trade port.
“”We must more actively drive reform and opening; deepen reforms of state-owned enterprises and assets, fiscal and tax policy and financing; and implement as soon as possible the major opening measures that have already been confirmed,” said the meeting according to a report from Xinhua.
“We must drive the healthy development of lending, the stock market, the bond market, the forex market and the real estate market, as well as engage in prompt monitoring and removal of hidden perils.
“We must maintain stable and neutral monetary policy, focus on guiding expectations, combine the acceleration of structural adjustments with the continued expansion of domestic demand, and maintain the stable operation of the economy,”
The politburo stressed the need for China to drive independent technological advances, amidst escalating trade tensions with the US which have seen telecommunications giant ZTE barred from accessing goods and services sold by American companies.
“We must deepen supply side structural reforms, and make greater use of market-based, rule-of-law based measures to resolve excess capacity; strengthen breakthroughs in key and core technologies, actively support new industries, new models, and new modes of development; continue to simplify governance and delegate authority, reduce taxes and administrative fees, and reduce the costs of enterprise financing and logistics.”
With respect to national defence policy the meeting approved the “Opinions Concerning Combining the Forces of the Party, Government, Police and People in a New Era for Firm Defence” (关于新时代加强党政军警民合力强边固防的意见), and emphasised the need to “strengthen the concentrated and unified leadership of the party.”
