In the second conversation of this series, Markus HERRMANN, Co-Founder and Managing Director, China Macro Group (CMG); (Advisory) Board Member stars and SCCC, Zurich, will be talking to BAI Chong-En, Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor; Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

At last year’s consequential 20th Party Congress, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping reiterated that “development is our Party’s top priority in governing and rejuvenating China”, at the same time the party – against the backdrop of a confluence of domestic and international challenges – dropped the notion of “important period of strategic opportunity”, now characterizing it as a “period of development in which strategic opportunities, risks and challenges exist at the same time”. To address this new situation, the CCP leadership vows to better balance supply-side with demand-side policies and strengthen domestic demand going forward. As a result, in December, the CCP Central Committee together with the State Council jointly issued the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand 2022 – 2035, a new economic blueprint guiding “high-quality development” in the decade ahead. What drives this policy shift? What can we expect from the new government and especially the new economic leadership? What does the government reshuffling mean for economic work? And how likely can China still achieve the goal to double 2020 GDP per capita by 2035?