Xi Jinping tightens financial sector control as new super-regulator takes shape
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Beijing is putting the final touches to a powerful Communist party commission that will oversee the country’s financial sector regulation, recruiting nearly 100 officials ahead of a landmark economic policy meeting next week.
The Central Financial Commission, which President Xi Jinping
Wang Jiang, a veteran state banker, has been appointed executive deputy director of the office of the commission, reporting to He Lifeng, a vice-premier and Xi’s new economic tsar, the people familiar with the new body said.
Victor Shih, professor of Chinese political economy at the University of California, San Diego, said businesses should expect to be affected by the commission, which will have the final say on important deals including major mergers and joint ventures.
Shih said the commission would also control mid-level state financial sector personnel appointments and the regulations applied by government agencies.
State institutions such as the central bank have already suffered a decline. Since August, the chairs of some state banks have in effect outranked the PBoC governor in the Communist party hierarchy.
