China's next 5-year plan beginning to take shape

Hong Kong

AFTER assembling rescues of indebted local governments and a plunging stock market for much of the year, China's leadership will get an opportunity to revive their narrative of economic reform at a gathering set for October.

Ahead of the Communist Party's so-called Fifth Plenum in three months, President Xi Jinping has been meeting provincial party bosses in recent weeks. Central to the talks has been the nation's next five-year plan, where a key challenge will be how to deliver on promises to ease state control over the economy.

With a 2013 pledge to give a decisive role to markets seen by some investors as tarnished by regulators' ha…