Xi Jinping says companies must be more patriotic
Supreme leader Xi Jinping gave a speech in which he provided mixed messages, urging companies to be both more patriotic and more innovative, and promising “deep reform and opening up.”
Today, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 delivered a speech at a symposium for entrepreneurs and executives from the Sinochem Group, Hikvision, Microsoft, and Panasonic (see Reuters, or Xinhua reports in Chinese and English, or the full speech transcript in Chinese).
Xi talked about “deep reform and opening up,” and international “openness and cooperation in science and technology,” and reiterated plans to focus on the “six stabilities” and the “six securities.” He also listed four requirements for helping the economy in the post-pandemic era:
- Implementing a bailout policy for struggling businesses
- Fostering a market-oriented, law-based, and international business environment
- Clarifying the political-business relationship
- Prioritizing self-employed households
But the real message came in Xi’s list of “five hopes” for entrepreneurs, including enhancing their patriotism, abiding by the law, and taking social responsibility. The other two “hopes” were for entrepreneurs to increase innovation and to expand their international horizons, but those appear to be sops to the market: What Xi wants is for Chinese companies and foreign companies in China to be more obedient to the Communist Party. Nonetheless, the ChiNext stock index grew following the speech.
