China has recently made major decisions about its economic future. On November 15, 2013, China announced dramatic new social and economic policies contemplating much greater reliance on market forces than it has in the past and inviting private-sector participation and foreign competition in industries long previously controlled by the central government. It also relaxed its one-child policy, opening the country and its people to vast new opportunities and inspiring new hopes and dreams.
Xi Jinping and other leaders have made it clear that China is willing to accept a slower growth pace if this will allow for a more sustainable, consumer-driven expansion of its economy. Some prognosticators are quick to conclude that China’s economy will soon significantly slow down, especially because China’s economy has sputtered following prior instances when the nation’s leaders have effected such fundamental economic reforms (such as in 1978 and 1993).