China's Xi Vows to Remove Mountainous Barriers to Private Sector

President Xi Jinping pledged to remove obstacles faced by private companies in China, while reminding the entrepreneurs that they owe their success to the Communist Party.

In a speech -- delivered at a closed-door meeting of mostly business leaders -- Xi provided the most detailed explanation yet of his vision for the private sector’s role in China’s state-managed economy. The remarks follow months of questions about the government’s commitment to market-based policies amid stock-market interventions and impatience about the pace of state-sector overhauls.