President Xi Jinping’s speech at the grand gathering in Beijing on December 18, to mark China’s 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, belied expectations that he would announce substantive measures to defuse the trade war with the United States and outline plans to overhaul the economy. Stock markets in Asia took a hit as Xi Jinping announced no new policies and instead devoted the bulk of his speech to lauding the vision and wisdom of the ruling Communist Party and vowing to continue to strengthen authoritarian rule. 100 Chinese and 10 foreigners were honoured for their contributions to China's Reform and Opening including Robin Li of Baidu, Jack Ma of Alibaba, and Pony Ma of Tencent, representing China's hi-tech industry. Honouring the 10 foreigners was possibly the leadership's way of showing a commitment to opening up.

(Comment: Robin Li, Jack Ma and Pony Ma are all members of the CCP and members xXi Jinping's 'brainstrust' on technology.)