If nothing else, President Xi Jinping is known for his pursuit of order. So how far the Chinese president’s attack on the "disorderly expansion of capital” will go has emerged as a defining question for investors trying to navigate the country’s wave of regulatory crackdowns.
Since first appearing in a Politburo readout in December, the phrase has been employed by government agencies and researchers to explain actions against technology moguls, celebrities and private tutors that fueled a $1.5 trillion stock rout last month. The slogan, like "common prosperity,” is among several Xi-isms feeding concerns that China is tilting away from free markets and back toward more ideologically driven centralized planning.
Its meaning, however, is even more mysterious than its egalitarian-sounding cousin. The exact words "disorderly expansion of capital” have appeared only five times in documents directly connected with Xi, according to a Bloomberg News review of nine years of the leader’s speeches and meetings. All mentions came in the past 10 months.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.