In early January, China's latest national financial work conference met to establish the country's fiscal strategy for the coming five years.
In the past two decades the conference has been held only four times. With each meeting convened at a critical juncture in the country's economic development, it is viewed as the key driver for national financial reform.
The conferences in 1997 and 2003, for example, introduced a clean-up of the then insolvent banking sector and formulated the framework for China's financial regulatory system. Meanwhile, the conference in 2007 laid the groundwork for the establishment...