Yale's Stephen Roach says China may have run out of imaginative solutions to its tough problems

China did not hold its so-called "Third Plenum" meeting in the fall of 2023 and has not yet set a date for the highly anticipated plenary session.

That is a "pretty big deal", according to Stephen Roach, senior fellow at Yale Law School — who says this may be a sign the country is struggling to find solutions to the challenges it is faced with.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has used the plenum meetings to announce a myriad of reforms to set the tone for his leadership, and while not all of those policies have been implemented, they were a statement about the country's future, Roach told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Monday.

"The failure to take advantage of that opportunity at a time like we have today in China, which is actually a much more serious set of challenges that China faces, I think, you know, indicates the fact that they may have run out of imaginative solutions to tough problems," Roach said.

China is reeling from an array of issues, not least economically. Confounding expectations, the world's second-largest economy has struggled to regain momentum after the coronavirus pandemic.

This includes the country's property market, which has been in turmoil as construction projects are left incomplete and developers are struggling to make ends meet. Recent data has suggested an economic slowdown, which paired with persistent deflation and a sluggish stock market has left many market participants questioning whether to invest in China's economy.

Other issues include China's aging population and productivity, Roach said.

"China's got an aging society and its got productivity issues and it needs more productivity growth to offset the loss of workers and how are they going to do it?"

"Xi Jinping has been talking about you know new