China’s Mystery ‘Authoritative Person’ Resurfaces to Explain Crackdowns
- Person projects confidence in economy in interview with Xinhua
- Policy makers won’t create liquidity flood while deleveraging
In 2016, an unnamed “authoritative person” gained international prominence by laying out the long-term economic thinking of China’s top leaders, saying in state media that the government should prioritize cutting leveraging instead of juicing up GDP growth.
The person, widely believed to be President Xi’s right-hand man -- China’s Vice Premier Liu He and his team – has stayed relatively quiet since then. But in a lengthy interview with Xinhua over the weekend, the “authoritative person” resurfaced. Along with “authoritative” government bodies, the mysterious person projected confidence in the economy, despite growing pessimism among economists. If there’s still any expectation of large-scale policy easing, this mysterious person made it clear that’s probably unlikely.