Vice-Premier Liu says it is impossible for China to return to planned economy

CHINESE Vice-Premier Liu He emphasised China’s support for the private economy, international cooperation and maintaining world peace on Thursday (Jan 17) in a speech to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.

Liu, who has been vice premier since 2018 and is considered to be China’s economic tsar, said that it was impossible for China to take the path of a planned economy as some claimed.

He did not specify who made the claims but his repudiation of an economic model associated with China’s Maoist past comes at a time when Beijing is looking to signal to the world that its economy, rather than controlling Covid-19, was back at the top of its agenda.

Liu’s went on to mention strengthening international cooperation and maintaining world peace 11 times. The economic tsar also said that China will champion entrepreneurship and that the door to foreign investment will only open wider.

He also addressed Beijing’s recent policy shift on Covid-19 control, saying that the speed with which people have recovered from the wave of infection was a surprise. REUTERS