Why do I think this is really bad news?

China's Xie Leaves Peru Early to Address Economic Problems, Official Says China's Finance Minister Xie Xuren was called back from an international economic conference in Peru before the meeting began, following orders from Beijing to help resolve problems at home, an organizer of the event said.

Comments

[tiger]

don't worry，maybe it's just a typical Chinese redtape。

[fatbrick]

From what I gather on other websites, Xie probably went back to settle a policy dispute INSIDE his ministry. That is why they said "he's the only one who could do so". If the dispute involves the bigger picture, then he just is not the one who can make the call, so no reason for him to be physically going back.

But since he has to go back, it means that the dispute inside his department involves other high rank officials, probably the deputy level ministers. In that case, he IS the only one who can settle the issue since it is his territory.

Another point is timing: A Central Conference on Economic Affairs will be held in November in Beijing as usual, and expectations are it will be decisive. On the agenda are fiscal expansion and monetary policy. Who do you think is the department to make fiscal policy proposals? Finance ministry!

Thus, it seems that the officials from the finance ministry are debating on their policy proposals. They probably have a big fight about the policies so that only the head of the ministry can settle it. And about other international nonsense meeting...do you think Chinese Finance minister would put those international nonsense meetings above the real meeting in Beijing???

[Alberto Ugas]

This makes no sense to me. If indeed there are internal disagreements at Finance, why would these require his physical presence for their resolution? How come he couldn't simply choose from competing policy options and chart his chosen direction? There has to be more to this story than what we have so far been led to believe.

[fatbrick]

Because policy debate in China does not work that way. Each proposal might have large interest group behind it. If you choose spend more money on education, department of ed. would benefit. If you build more railroad, department of railroad would take the most of it...He need to meet with different parties and try to strike a balance, while find the effective way to use the money at the same time. Most importantly, the decision made would be based on consensus among his senior deputies. Otherwise he risks his own political future in front of the decison makers. This is how Chinese beureaucrats work.

[ACM]

Overly leveraged business anyone? Officially they have no problems with over-leveraged business in the mainland... however if you look at HK and Taiwan, where the bulk of the private investments come from, the "over-leverage" issue has different proportions. Needless to say the Chinese bureaucrats are worried, because US and EU DEMANDS are DRYING out... as a result their financial PR show is running out of tricks...

[Víctor]

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