The death of freedom and internationalism

HAN WOO-DUK
The author is a senior reporter of the China Lab.

The Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council of China is the most notable government thinktank. It plans and proposes economic policies. The DRC published the China 2030 report with the World Bank in February 2012. It contains the long-term development direction for the Chinese economy. The person who planned the drafting of this report was Li Keqiang, then vice premier of the State Council, who passed away on Oct. 27.

Two keywords of the report were “market” and “global.” The report recommended that in all economic policy decisions, the market should be at the center and a mutual growth system with the global economy should be established. This was the future that Li had dreamed of for China in 2030.

Li tried to reflect the report in government policies. “Let’s open the era of mass entrepreneurship and let everyone jump into innovation!” he shouted at the Summer Davos Forum held in Tianjin in September 2014, his second year as the premier. Young people in the IT field rejoiced. The slogan “mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation” quickly spread across Chinese industries.

The startup and innovation boom commenced. China settled online shopping before any other country, and “online taxis” were introduced. Around this time, people said, “In Beijing, even panhandlers beg with WeChat.” In September 2014, Jack Ma brought Alibaba to the New York Stock Exchange for the biggest IPO in the world at the time. The internet revolution vitalized the economy and made businesses younger.

But at the time, the “Li Keqiang economy” was challenged from deep within. In June that year, the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission — the highest consultative body of the Chinese Communist Party — was held in Beijing. The Xinhua News Agency’s report about the meeting contained something unusual. The chair of the meeting, which had usually been hosted by the premier, was President Xi Jinping. The economic authority was transferred to the hands of Xi Jinping. The power quickly started to concentrate on one person.

It is “Xi’s world.” In China, instead of Li’s mass innovation, a new type of national system is being emphasized, where the state methodically mobilizes national resources. As a result, money flows to state-owned companies, not to private companies, and self-reliance is prioritized over global cooperation.

Xi Jinping’s prioritization of the party in his 10-year rule resulted in the severance of the freedom and internationalism upheld in Chinese politics since China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. Instead, Chinese authoritarianism is filling the gap. Li’s death is in line with the death of freedom and internationalism in China. May he rest in peace.