Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a high-level meeting that "reviewed and approved” measures to fight monopolies, battle pollution and shore up strategic reserves, all areas that are crucial to his government’s push to improve the quality of life for the nation’s 1.4 billion people.
Few details were released about the guidelines discussed on Monday at the meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform, which includes some of China’s most powerful leaders and has wide powers to shape government policy. Xi in particular stressed the importance of strengthening anti-monopoly regulations, a push that has already cost tech giants hundreds of billions of dollars in market value over the past year.
Putting those regulations into practice was "an intrinsic requirement for improving the socialist market economic system,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Xi. The changes would create a level playing field for businesses, benefit consumers and promote "high-quality development and common prosperity,” Xinhua added, citing a broader drive by the Xi administration to narrow China’s wealth gap.