China’s reform generation is retiring

Li Keqiang and Liu He, top economic adviser, are expected to step down during China’s annual political congress this weekend. They were a generation of policymakers defined by their experience of the Reform and Opening Up era. China has embraced a mix of elements that has at times confounded foreign

March 12, 2023 . 1:53 AM

1 min read

Li Keqiang and Liu He, top economic adviser, are expected to step down during China’s annual political congress this weekend.
The current cadre of leaders are a generation of policymakers defined by their experience of the Reform and Opening Up era, spearheaded by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s.
China has embraced a mix of elements that has at times confounded foreign observers into thinking it was undergoing wholesale westernisation.
In China’s authoritarian capitalist regime, both the state and the market dominate all spheres of life.
Li called for Beijing to “give priority to the recovery and expansion of consumption”.