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China’s ‘two sessions’ 2023: Xi Jinping hails role of private firms, but will ‘actions speak louder than words’?
- Xi Jinping’s comments come at high-profile meeting with upper-echelon party members and billionaire business leaders
- The task of boosting the private economy will be divided into more detailed plans and be allocated to specific government agencies for implementation after ‘two sessions’
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Frank Tangin Beijing
President Xi Jinping told private entrepreneurs and business representatives that they should “eliminate worries” and “lay down burdens” in their business development, calling them “one of us” at a high-profile conference on Monday.
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It marked a sharp contrast to previous government endeavours to curb the disorderly expansion of capital, and it may herald a more supportive stance throughout Xi’s norm-breaking third term, especially with his most pro-business aide, Li Qiang, expected to take the premiership later this week.
The latest charm offensive comes with Beijing looking to rely more on the private sector to stabilise the national economy and job market, and leadership faces an uphill battle in mitigating and coping with Washington’s technological-containment measures.
However, some analysts say Beijing needs to take substantial action in areas such as market access and equal treatment, if it hopes to restore market confidence, and more financial help is needed for private businesses that just endured nearly three years’ worth of costly zero-Covid measures.
“We have always treated private firms and entrepreneurs as one of us,” the president told members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top political advisory body.
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