China economy: Key meeting offers few clues on how to tackle worsening downturn

Hong Kong CNN —

China’s ruling Communist Party has set ambitious long-term policy goals at its most important political meeting on reform, but offered little detail on how to pull the world’s second-largest economy out of a worsening downturn.

In a behind-closed doors meeting known as the third plenum, more than 360 members of the party’s Central Committee — including the most senior political and military leaders and heads of state-owned enterprises — held talks from Monday to Thursday at a hotel in Beijing.

According to a communique released Thursday, discussions at the plenum — traditionally held every five years — centered on how to deepen reforms in a wide range of areas and advance “Chinese-style modernization,” a broad ideal for the country’s development backed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Xi, who hosted the meeting, has laid out a longterm vision to build a more equitable, innovative, and greener economy — under the tight control of the party — by 2035.

Aerial photo shows commercial residential buildings in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, May 17, 2024.

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But while the communique outlined broad goals such asboosting technology self-sufficiency, improving social welfare and deepening reforms of the fiscal, taxation and financial systems, global investors were left disappointed by a lack of detail on how China would address the most pressing issues plaguing its economy — from sluggish consumer spending and a persistent property slump to a mounting debt crisis facing municipalities around the country.

“There are few signs that the just concluded third plenum marks a major change in the direction of