What do China’s reassignments of Liu Shiyu and Yi Huiman say about Xi Jinping’s policy priorities for the next few years?
- Yi Huiman, chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, promoted to securities regulator head to help steer stock market towards avenue for fundraising
- Incumbent CSRC chairman Liu Shiyu will oversee command centre of collectives, the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives
China’s government made two significant appointments over the weekend, assigning two former bankers to key positions that underscore President Xi Jinping’s policy priorities for the next few years, as the nation’s economic growth loses its breakneck pace, while the financial markets must prepare for greater foreign competition and liberalisation.
The government promoted Yi Huiman, chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), to head the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the financial industry watchdog.
Incumbent regulator Liu Shiyu, after helping to stabilise China’s 5 trillion yuan (US$742 billion) stock market rout in 2015, must now turn his attention to help reinforce the country’s massive agrarian economy, as manufacturing slows down amid a trade war with the US.
The changing of the guards was meant “to strengthen the safety net for China’s economy when the external environment becomes more complex” and challenging, said the Nanjing Business School’s professor Sun Wujun.
The appointments came even as vice-premier Liu He prepared to make his way to Washington to commence talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lightziger to defuse a trade war that has weighed on China’s growth rate and roiled global capital markets. Policymakers in Washington and Beijing must work out a deal by March 1, at the end of a 90-day truce.
