A statement issued after the meeting of Polit Bureau of China’s ruling Communist Party said coming months would be tough.
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China’s powerful Polit Bureau (PB) has endorsed the ruling Communist Party’s long-term strategy for growing the economy by encouraging more consumer spending and weeding out unproductive companies to promote “survival of the fittest.”

A statement issued on July 30 after the meeting of the 24 highest leaders of the party warned that coming months would be tough, perhaps alluding to mounting global uncertainties ahead of the U.S. Presidential election in November.

“There are still many risks and hidden dangers in key areas,” it said, adding that the tasks for reform and stability in the second half of the year were “very heavy.”

The PB promised unspecified measures to restore confidence in financial markets and boost government spending, echoing priorities laid out by a wider meeting of senior party members earlier in July. After that gathering, China’s central bank reduced several key interest rates and the government doubled subsidies for electric vehicles bought to replace older cars as part of the effort to spur growth.

The PB’s calls to look after low- and middle-income groups reflect pledges to build a stronger social safety net to enable families to spend more instead of socking money away to provide for health care, education and elder care. But it provided no specifics on how it will do that.

“This sounds promising on paper. But the lack of any specifics means it is unclear what it will entail in practice,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a commentary. The party’s plans for how to improve China’s fiscal policies at a time of burgeoning local government debt were “short on new ideas,” he said.

Instead, the emphasis is on moving faster to implement policies such as the government’s campaign to convince families to trade in old cars and appliances and redecorate their homes that includes tax incentives and subsidies for purchases that align with improved efficiency and reducing use of polluting fossil fuels.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has prioritised developing industries using advanced technologies, a strategy that has made the country a leader in some areas but also led to oversupplies that are now squeezing some manufacturers, such as makers of solar panels.

‘Vicious competition’

The statement vowed support for “gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises,” referring to new, fast-growing companies and high-tech start-ups. It warned against “vicious competition” but also said China should improve mechanisms to ensure “survival of the fittest” and eliminate “backward and inefficient production capacity.”

The document also highlighted longstanding concerns. The countryside and farmers need more support to “ensure that the rural population does not return to poverty on a large scale,” it said. It also condemned what analysts have said is widespread resistance to fresh initiatives, saying that “formalism and bureaucracy are stubborn diseases and must be corrected” and warning that economic disputes should not be resolved by “administrative and criminal means.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. File
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on November 1 he will raise the plight of a detained democracy blogger with Chinese leaders during a state visit to China.

Mr. Albanese said he had approved a draft letter to the sons of Yang Hengjun, who has been detained in China since 2019.

“We’re very sympathetic and understand the concerns that they would have for their father and for this Australian who has been detained now for a long period of time,” Mr. Albanese told reporters.

The sons have made public a letter to Mr. Albanese, dated October 28, that said there was a “narrow window of opportunity” before Mr. Albanese left for China to secure their father’s freedom.

“We ask that you make it clear that it is not possible to stabilise the bilateral relationship with a government that is holding an Australian citizen just a few kilometres south of where you will be hosted,” the brothers added, referring to Beijing.

They said they had just last week received the first letter Yang had been allowed to send from detention. Yang wrote: “I’m sick, I’m weak, I’m dying.” Yang, who once worked for China’s Ministry of State Security, is still awaiting a verdict from his closed-door trial on espionage charges in May 2021.

His sons are 24 and 31 years old. Family friend Feng Chongyi said the sons had not been publicly identified because they feared Chinese retaliation for their father’s activities. Feng said Mr. Albanese becoming the first Australian Prime Minister in seven years to visit China created an opportunity for Yang.

“It’s not the last chance, but it’s the best chance,” Feng said. “The visit symbolises the complete normalisation of relations between the two countries.” Mr. Albanese’s visit that begins on Saturday is a sign that bilateral relations have improved since his centre-left government was elected last year following nine years of conservative rule.

Mr. Albanese will meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai during the three-day visit.

Mr. Albanese raised the plights of Yang and another detained Australian, journalist Cheng Lei, in his first meeting with Xi on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia a year ago. Cheng was deported last month in what many saw as Beijing clearing the way for Mr. Albanese’s visit.

Yang’s sons wrote that said they had been “inspired by the wonderful news” of Cheng’s release. They hoped Australian authorities could “achieve a second miracle by saving our father”. Asked about Cheng’s case, Mr. Albanese told reporters: “Every case is … different.”

An expected meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden would not be smooth-sailing said China’s Foreign Minister. File
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China’s Foreign Minister considers that the road to an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden would not be “smooth-sailing” and that both sides must work together to achieve results, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Wang Yi met with Mr. Biden, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, during a three-day visit to Washington. Both sides agreed to work toward a bilateral meeting at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in San Francisco in November.

In a statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry summarising the discussions with members of the “U.S. strategic community,” Mr. Wang said that the road to the bilateral meeting would not be “smooth sailing” and that they could not rely on “autopilot” to make it happen.

Mr. Wang’s three-day visit to Washington came at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on advanced technology and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.

The statement said that although there are still many issues to be resolved, both sides believe that it is both beneficial and necessary for the U.S. and China to maintain dialogue.

The meeting is the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilising an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.

According to the Foreign Ministry statement, Mr. Wang also said that China and the U.S. needed a “return to Bali,” in a reference to Mr. Xi and Mr. Biden’s previous meeting at a G-20 summit last year, where both officials discussed issues relating to Taiwan, U.S.-China trade tensions as well as cooperation to address issues like climate change, health and food security.

Mr. Wang said that the two countries must “eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus and accumulate results.”

Other issues discussed between Mr. Wang and Mr. Biden included military exchanges between the U.S. and China, as well as financial, technological and cultural exchanges and cooperation, as well as the crises in West Asia and Ukraine.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday, announced that Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the 18th G20 Summit in New Delhi, instead of President Xi Jinping. The ministry released an official statement on its website.

Here are 5 facts about Chinese Premier Li Qiang