LI KEQIANG is a master of metaphors for painful economic reform. In 2013, his first year as prime minister, he told the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, that reform required the courage of a “warrior cutting his own wrist”. At the NPC’s annual gathering in 2015, he described it as “taking a knife to one’s own flesh”. On March 5th, at the opening in Beijing of this year’s 11-day meeting of the legislature, he was less gory, calling it “the struggle from chrysalis to butterfly”. Mr Li (pictured, right) deserves full marks for his range of imagery, but reforms on his watch have been less impressive. This year’s parliamentary session has highlighted one big reason for Mr Li’s limited accomplishments: his limited power.
For the past three decades, China’s prime ministers have presided over the country’s economic affairs. But the 3,000 delegates who are meeting in Beijing know that President Xi Jinping (pictured, left) calls the shots on the economy these days. At news conferences, many officials have praised Mr Xi as the “core” of the Communist Party, a title that was granted to him last year...Continue reading
Source: China http://ift.tt/2mFwAu6
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