CHINA: China Scrambles to Mollify Wary Domestic Firms and Foreign Investors.

For years, Xi Jinping has browbeaten China’s big private-sector companies as he increased Communist Party control of the economy, all while codifying the primacy of national-security. Now it seems he’s surprised at the result.

With private-sector investment contracting in spite of the post-pandemic reopening, foreign capital inflows declining and more than one-in-five people aged 16 to 24 struggling to find a job, China’s leader and his lieutenants have launched a massive messaging campaign.

The message? We didn’t really mean it.

In recent weeks, there’s been a raft of party and government statements and pledges and meetings with executives (foreign and domestic) to assure them that China is open for business. Analysts at China consultancy Trivium observed on Thursday, “Beijing has devoted more attention to supporting private businesses this year than at any time we can remember since the founding of the People’s Republic.”

As Ronald Reagan liked to say, “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.”