China Herald: For Xi, power counts more than market

Arthur Kroeber

While at the beginning of his tenure, market forces popped up regularly in the official parlance, by now it is clear that centralized power is key for president Xi Jinping, with markets at a second place at best, says economist Arthur Kroeber in the New York Times.

The New York Times:

In a meeting with American business leaders in Beijing last week, Mr. Xi appeared self-assured, exuding confidence that, despite China’s recent economic turbulence, his government holds the upper hand, an American with knowledge of the event said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a closed meeting.

American corporate executives have complained that a new national security law in China and proposed laws on cybersecurity and counterterrorism will restrict their operations by subjecting them to unnecessary scrutiny from China’s ever more powerful domestic security apparatus. But Mr. Xi offered a robust defense of the legislation in the meeting, according to the American with knowledge of the meeting.

“The evidence seems to be accumulating that Xi is a leader whose vision is mainly about centralizing power and asserting China’s greatness,” saidArthur Kroeber, a managing director of Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm, and a longtime analyst of the Chinese economy. “When forced to choose between giving market forces more play in the name of efficiency and sustainable growth, or reasserting the primacy of the state regardless of the long-run economic cost,” Mr. Xi seems more likely to choose the latter, he added.

More in the New York Times.

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