China unveils its new economic vision

ONLY 205 of the Chinese Communist Party’s 99m members serve as full members of its Central Committee. Reaching such giddy heights (the top 0.0002%) is not always a privilege. Of late for example, it has meant spending four days in July closeted in a Beijing hotel poring over an epic resolution on “Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernisation”.

Known as the “third plenum”, this was one of seven plenary meetings that punctuate a Central Committee’s five-year term. By tradition, the third has been used to approve big economic-policy shifts. Many analysts argue another rethink is long overdue. Xi Jinping, China’s ruler since 2012, once promised to give markets a “decisive” role in the allocation of resources. But he has since lost the confidence of private enterprise. And the economy is struggling to wean itself off decades of investment in property and infrastructure.