sheng143_Yan YanXinhua via Getty Images_central work conference Yan Yan/Xinhua via Getty Images

The Future of China’s Financial System

Last month’s Central Financial Work Conference underscored areas where China’s central government should intervene to strengthen and stabilize the economy, from restoring local-government balance sheets to supporting innovation. But this does not mean that China is embracing greater economic centralization.

HONG KONG – Last month, China held its first Central Financial Work Conference – the highest-level review of the financial sector that the Communist Party of China (CPC) conducts – since 2017. Given that China’s financial sector includes the world’s largest banking system by assets ($53.1 trillion) – and the second-largest (after the United States) by stock-market capitalization – and that the full Politburo Standing Committee attends the conference, the decisions made, and even the tone struck, have global implications.

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