Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and 370 or so other Communist Party officials are meeting in Beijing this week, away from the public eye, to review a plan intended to shake the world’s second-biggest economy out of its malaise.

The meeting, however, began here on a disappointing note for the party leadership as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced the GDP for the second quarter expanded by 4.7 per cent well below the 5.3 per cent annual pace of growth in the first quarter of the year, report PTI

“A lot of uncertainty feeds into very low consumer sentiment, very low investor sentiment,” Bert Hofman, a former World Bank country director for China, said in a talk this month about the meeting. “This is a point in time where China needs to show its cards.”

Party leaders are orchestrating the conclave — a so-called Third Plenum of the Central Committee — as a stage to promote what Xi calls “high quality” growth.

In recent history, Third Plenum meetings, named for their place in the five-year cycle of committee sessions, were when Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping ignited enthusiasm for their modernisation goals.

Xi will sit in the front of a conference hall, most likely in the Jingxi Hotel, a 60-year-old institution with Soviet-style architecture. The party loyalists arrayed before him are near certain to acclaim his plans during the four-day meeting that started Monday and will consider a draft proposal on “further comprehensively deepening reform”.

Chinese media have sought to create a buzz around Xi’s plans, but the real test may come later, as any changes in policy filter through the layers of government.

NYTNS