With the concept of “common prosperity” set as a key goal of the Communist Party, China´s economic model seems to be heading for a big shift in the coming years. Already Beijing is introducing policies aimed at aligning the market with the Party´s ideology and broader goals. Can we expect to see a shift away from the pragmatic economic state-planning of the last decades towards a more ideologically driven development? And what would that imply for the role of private companies in China?

We will discuss these questions with Isabella Weber and Jacob Gunter. Isabella Weber is the Research Leader for China of the Asian Political Economy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts. She is the author of the book How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate, which was published in 2021. Jacob Gunter is a Senior Analyst focusing on China’s economy at MERICS.