Chinese Government Planning To Increasingly Involve Market Forces and Private Businesses in the Economy

Better late than never

SHANGHAI — In a major policy shift, the Chinese government is planning for private businesses and market forces to play a larger role in its economy, the world's second-largest after that of the United States.

In a speech to party cadres containing some of the boldest pro-market rhetoric they have heard in more than a decade, the country's new prime minister, Li Keqiang, said this month that the central government would reduce the state's role in economic matters in the hope of unleashing the creative energies of the nation.