李克强敦促各部委积极回应舆论关切

Investors buffeted by turmoil in China’s markets have lambasted Beijing for its poor communications. Now the government has responded with its own definition of good communications — instructing ministries to tell the world that everything is really just fine.

受中国市场动荡连累的投资者近来纷纷抨击北京方面沟通欠佳。现在中国政府用自己定义的良好沟通作出了回应——指示各部委告诉世界，一切其实都不错。

Premier Li Keqiang urged “better communication” by ministries in a weekend speech carried extensively by Chinese media. The message should be that China “has sufficient policy weapons” to cope with its challenges, Mr Li told the State Council, or cabinet, in comments loaded with military metaphors. But he added: “We don’t want to use our weapons when we’re not fully prepared.”

中国媒体广泛报道了中国总理李克强上周末发表的一个讲话。他在讲话中敦促各部委“积极回应舆论关切”。李克强在国务院常务会议上表示，基本信息应该是，“我们的工具箱里还有很多工具”，可以应对国家面临的挑战。但他补充说：“不能无备而动。”

As if on cue, the powerful state planning commission convened a rare press conference yesterday and foreign journalists have been invited to not one but two panel discussions on the state of the economy today.

仿佛应声而动的是，实权部门国家发改委(NDRC)昨日举行了罕见的记者会，同时外国记者应邀在今日聆听两场有关经济状态的小组讨论。

Meanwhile, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who has been barely seen or heard from in the past six months, appeared at the weekend in an extensive interview in Caixin, a financial publication.

与此同时，过去六个月难见踪影的中国央行行长周小川在上周末露面，接受了《财新周刊》的长篇采访。

The call for better communications comes after a year in which China cracked down on media reporting on financial turmoil, even forcing one journalist into a televised confession for his scoops. A more general political tightening over the past few years has sharply constrained media and academic discussion of the economy, once considered a safe topic for public debate.

中国高层呼吁加强沟通之前的一年，中国打击了媒体对金融动荡的报道，甚至强迫一名记者在电视上为他采访到的独家资讯承认错误。过去几年里普遍的政治收紧已经极大地压制了媒体和学术界的经济讨论，而经济一度被认为是安全的公共辩论话题。

The long list of China’s policy challenges includes slowing growth, rising debt, crippling overcapacity, squeezed corporate profits, chaotic equity markets, pronounced capital outflows and Beijing’s desire to maintain a stable foreign exchange rate. Heavy-handed attempts to intervene as equity markets crashed last year and a clumsy August devaluation of the renminbi alarmed foreign observers.

中国的政策挑战清单很长，包括经济增长放缓、债务不断上升、产能过剩严重、企业利润受到挤压、股市混乱、资本外流显著，以及北京方面保持稳定汇率的意愿。去年股市大跌时的强力干预手段和去年8月处理不佳的人民币贬值，都让外国观察员感到震惊。

Mr Li defended the interventions as “the right call” and necessary to ward off systemic risk and “defuse some bombs” but he also appeared to call the regulators to task for “internal management issues” marring their response.

李克强为干预措施进行了辩护，称其是“正确的”，避免了系统性风险的发生，而且“拆掉了一些‘炸弹’”，但他似乎责怪监管部门的“内部管理问题”影响了它们的回应。

As money has flowed out of China, international bank analysts have spent months trying to work out how much in reserves the central bank has at its disposal to defend the currency, which appears to have pushed the Chinese government into responding.

随着资金不断从中国外流，国际银行的分析师们花了几个月试图估算中国央行可以动用多少外汇储备捍卫人民币，这似乎促使中国政府作出回应。

“It seems to me that this is a government or a leadership not in control and [it] is not at ease with itself and seems to be clearly worried because they take every slight and every negative comment on their economy in such a bad fashion,” said Fraser Howie, an expert on Chinese financial markets.

“在我看来，这说明本届政府或本届领导层没有控制住局面，对自己不自在，而且看上去明显担心，因为他们对有关中国经济的任何微词、任何负面言论都那么敏感，”研究中国金融市场的专家侯伟(Fraser Howie)表示。

At the National Development and Reform Commission yesterday, a Chinese reporter pointed to questions over the renminbi’s value by saying: “People around me, including investors and common folk, are starting to exchange their money into dollars.”

在国家发改委昨日举行的记者会上，一名中国记者在谈到人们对于人民币币值的疑虑时说道：“我身边的许多人，包括一些投资者和一些普通老百姓都开始兑换美元。”

Zhao Chenxin, NDRC spokesman, shot back that those people were just like the proverbial blind men and the elephant: “They have the problem of incomplete information.”

对此，国家发改委资讯发言人赵辰昕反驳称，那些人就像寓言中的盲人摸象，存在“信息不充分的问题”。