If only they had listened to himIN MOST countries the finance minister is the second most important person in government. Not in China. Economic policy is set by the Communist Party’s leaders and does not change just because there is a new minister. Hence the retirement of one of China’s few remaining economic reformers, Lou Jiwei, caused barely a ripple on the currency markets. Nevertheless, his removal and track record say a lot about the real problems of governing China.
Mr Lou is a protégé of Zhu Rongji, a reformist prime minister who stepped down in 2003. He is an unabashed free marketeer—a rare, even endangered species in China. His replacement has been widely interpreted as yet another example of infighting at the top, in which attempts to place loyal supporters of the president, Xi Jinping, in positions of authority risk sidelining reformers.
But that seems unlikely. Mr Lou’s successor, Xiao Jie, comes out of the stable not of Mr Xi but of his prime minister, Li Keqiang (Mr Xiao held a senior post in Mr Li’s secretariat). So if any politicking is being done, it is by the prime minister....Continue reading
Source: China http://www.economist.com/news/china/21710000-too-bad-he-was-ignored-outspoken-finance-minister-retires?fsrc=rss
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