BEIJING: Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Monday vowed unchanged and firm support to the country’s private sector, a sign from the top of reassurance to businesses, clarified misinterpretations, and also fought back at foreign smearing of China’s tightened regulatory measures over a range of sectors. Rather than calling the regulatory efforts a “crackdown” as some foreign media had put it, Chinese experts said Liu’s remarks reflect the true intention of the central government’s unprecedented campaign: To benefit the long-term development of the industry, as well as the welfare of the general public. “China’s policy to support the private sector hasn’t changed, and won’t change in the future,” Liu said in a video speech at the opening ceremony of the China International Digital Economy Expo 2021 held in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China’s Hebei Province on Monday.
China will help the private sector play a bigger role in stabilizing growth and employment, adjusting structures, and encouraging innovation, Liu said, stressing the importance of protecting fair competition, and opposing monopolies in further developing the digital economy. To further point out the significance of the private sector, the vice premier reiterated that it plays an important role in the economy, as it contributes more than 50 percent of taxes, 60 percent of GDP, 70 percent of technological innovation, 80 percent of urban employment and 90 percent of new jobs and firms.
“We must adhere to the direction of socialist market economy reform, persist in advancing high-level opening-up to the outside world, adhere to the basic economic system of the primary stage of socialism, and resolutely protect intellectual property rights,” Liu noted.
Liu’s speech was a clear sign to shake off concerns of private enterprises, and it also indicated that anti-monopoly efforts will continue, telling entrepreneurs to bravely innovate, to conform to international rules, and assuring them that they will be only be better “protected,” Wei Jianguo, a former Chinese vice minister of commerce, told the Global Times on Monday.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
