President Xi Jinping wants Chinese to go on a shopping spree

 

 Can Xi Jinping's 'buy new products' campaign fix China's economy?

President Xi Jinping wants Chinese to go on a shopping spree.
 
During a key economic meeting of the Chinese Communist Party held last week, Xi repeatedly mentioned that people should buy new products to replace old ones.
 
But was he campaigning or commanding? To consumers as well as executives at small and midsize private companies, Xi's proselytizing felt more like a top-down order to spend regardless of actual need or financial well-being. It also seemed to ignore market principles.
 
Just as Xi came up with this unpopular campaign, a legendary Chinese entrepreneur died, leaving behind reminders of how the private sector once helped to create an economic boom.
 
For decades, Zong Qinghou, founder of major beverage maker Hangzhou Wahaha Group, was a front-runner in the Chinese business world taking advantage of the rising Chinese-style market principles that aimed for a free economy. In 1991, Wahaha made headlines by acquiring a state-run company far bigger than itself.
 
Zong's stronghold was Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Zhejiang is where private sector companies first flourished in China under the "reform and opening-up" policy introduced in the late 1970s. Coincidently, it is also where Xi worked as the top provincial leader in the early 2000s.