People’s Daily with some weird but telling economics today on the front page. Title of piece: “Expanding domestic demand must involve deepening reform of supply-side reform” (扩大内需必须深化供给侧结构性改革) https://wap.peopleapp.com/article/5383554/5296932?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0

Telling as it’s positioning a new wave of “supply-side reform” (SSR) as the core of reform. First phase of SSR involved shutting down “excess capacity” in steel, coal etc. That’s a whole subject in itself but let’s move on. That rolled into a diff but related environmt campaign

Now this phase of SSR is focused improving the efficiency of **production inputs** as heralded in the recent State Council document - land, money, tech, labour etc. But there’s nothing really in that document about ownership, which is the central issue.

So we’re back to the struggle to make markets work more efficiently without tackling the central issue - that state-backed firms get preferential access to cheaper inputs. All the time. So these moves are only going to bring marginal if any effects.

And then it gets worse as the piece then links this to technology. And so this round of “supply-side reform” basically just turns into ton more state support for more 5G, AI, data-centre etc investments.