BEIJING — Reform advocates are looking to China's leaders to launch a new era of change by giving entrepreneurs a bigger role in the state-dominated economy and farmers more control over land at a policymaking conference that began its second day's deliberations Sunday. The Communist Party has yet to give details of the agenda of the four-day meeting that began Saturday. But the official Xinhua News Agency, which only reported the closed-door gathering had begun, said it would consider “major issues concerning comprehensively deepening reforms.” Chinese leaders are under pressure to overhaul a model based on trade and investment that has run out of steam after delivering three decades of rapid growth. Advisers including the World Bank say they need to give entrepreneurs who create China's new jobs and wealth a bigger role in an economy controlled by inefficient state companies. “The medium-term outlook for the economy depends on whether or not the government can step out of the way,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for Capital Economics. The weekend gathering of the 205-member Central Committee is its third annual plenum — or full meeting — of the party's 18th congress. Such meetings at this point in the party's five-year political cycle are seen as a launching pad for changes in economic direction after Deng Xiaoping used a third plenum in 1978 to unveil his reforms. The plenum offers a platform for President Xi Jinping, who became party leader last year, to make clear his own economic vision. The party is not expected to release any details until the meeting ends Tuesday. Chinese leaders have talked for two years about the need for a new growth model. But major reforms were put off until Xi and other leaders consolidated their political positions following a once-a-decade handover of power.— AP
