The Washington Post today. He Lifeng loves the use of state power with regards to industry while Grandma Yellen urged market reforms (read neoliberalism). According to the Washington Post that is the antithema of what grandmother is telling the Chinese leaders to do. Also quoting some think tankies to make their point. Instead they like the US-educated Liu He more than the ''domestic'' He Lifeng. They like assets that they can use. A Chinese Gorbachev and Yeltsin would be a dream come true. How dare we to let the state play and ''outsized'' economic role. The private real estate oligarchs will take care of everything including Steve Jobs and Foxconn. Liu He is an 'international educated' policy wonk. Oh, so powerful so animalistic. That should read he has sniffed western and american culture during his education time and more likely to do our bidding.
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The treasury secretary, a familiar face on the global stage from her tenure as chair of the Federal Reserve, has urged China to “shift toward market reforms,” while He Lifeng has a record of supporting state-directed investments during a government career spent mostly in city and regional posts. He backed a massive development project in Tianjin that drew criticism as a white elephant before heading China’s central planning agency, where he emphasized an outsize economic role for the state.
Taking the measure of Xi’s new team was a key reason Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen
this week, and the visit is seen as an essential step toward narrowing the diplomatic gap between Washington and Beijing. On Saturday, Yellen got her first chance for extensive talks with China’s new economic chief, Vice Premier He Lifeng, 68, who replaced Liu He in March. Yellen and He led talks that revolved around how each government is redrawing the line between commercial links that generate profits and those that create security risks.
“He’s no Liu He,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser on China at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Yellen and He look at the world through very different lenses.” Welcoming Yellen on Saturday, He quoted Xi on the need for “a generally stable U.S.-China relationship” and expressed a willingness to work with her to bring that about. He also alluded to “difficulties” in the relationship caused earlier this year by the Chinese spy balloon that wandered across the United States until President Biden ordered it
off the South Carolina coast.
In a statement after the roughly six-hour meeting, which continued over dinner, Treasury said the talks had been “candid, constructive, and comprehensive.” The two sides discussed economic issues and potential areas of cooperation, including climate finance and debt relief for low-income countries.
He’s links to Xi date to the 1980s, when the latter was deputy mayor of the port city of Xiamen, and He was the city’s finance director.
The two were so close that He reportedly attended Xi’s 1987 marriage to the popular Chinese singer Peng Liyuan, said Dennis Wilder, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who advised President George W. Bush on China policy.
When Xi became governor of Fujian province, He served under him again. In 2012, Xi succeeded Hu Jintao as China’s top leader and two years later promoted He to the post of deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s powerful central planning agency.
Now, as one of four new vice premiers, He will be responsible for economic management, including the financial sector and foreign trade, two areas in which he “does not have any prior experience,” according to Minxin Pei, editor of China Leadership Monitor, a journal based in the U.S.
“He is the epitome of a Xi Jinping protégé,” said Wilder. “This means that He Lifeng knows Xi Jinping’s mind better than just about anyone else, including Premier Li Qiang. He is an ultimate insider and an ultimate loyalist. Whatever Xi wants of him, he will do without hesitation.”
But his influence began to fade as Xi increasingly turned to the state sector to lead economic development. Last year, state-owned enterprises accounted for 71 percent of China’s year-over-year investment growth, according to Gerard DiPippo, a senior fellow at CSIS.
“Liu is an internationally educated policy wonk. He was once a champion of market reforms, but that lost steam over time as it wasn’t the direction Xi was most inclined to go,” said Anna Ashton, director of China corporate affairs for the Eurasia Group. “He Lifeng is a domestically educated political animal with more of a day-to-day operational focus, and a reputation for getting things done and enforcing Xi’s preferences.” Saturday’s talks — held in a high-ceiled room lit by eight square chandeliers — included other fresh faces on the Chinese side of the table, including Pan Gongsheng, the incoming central bank chief.|
Non paywall source:
