Xi Jinping has promised support for private businesses and fair treatment, but many nonetheless remain skeptical and cautious.
Women work at a bag manufacturing plant in Linhuan Town, Anhui Province, China, on Aug. 21, 2025. AFP stringer/AFP via Getty Images
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Commentary
Chinese businesspeople have good reason to harbor mixed feelings about Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s recent encouragement and promises of support. The only just-released text of an important speech he gave to select business leaders in February contains fulsome promises and a willingness to correct past failures.
Milton Ezrati is a contributing editor at The National Interest, an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Human Capital at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), and chief economist for Vested, a New York-based communications firm. Before joining Vested, he served as chief market strategist and economist for Lord, Abbett & Co. He also writes frequently for City Journal and blogs regularly for Forbes. His latest book is “Thirty Tomorrows: The Next Three Decades of Globalization, Demographics, and How We Will Live.”
