Key Adviser Tapped to Oversee Economic Reform Body

Liu He, one of the central government’s key economic advisers, has recently been assigned a new title to lead the reform of China’s economic system.

Liu — currently the office director of the Communist Party’s Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs — was reported to be giving a speech as head of the Central Group on Economic System and Ecological Civilization Reform, during a national meeting on reform held in Beijing on April 26 and 27, according to the website of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

It is Liu’s first public appearance under this title. He is also deputy director and deputy party chief of the NDRC, China’s national economic planning body.

The Central Group on Economic System and Ecological Civilization Reform was founded in February 2014, and is one of the sub-groups under the Leading Group for Overall Reform, which is headed by President Xi Jinping.

The establishment of this sub-group is considered to reflective of the top leadership’s emphasis on economic reform based on a sustainable environment.

Liu, born in Beijing in 1952, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Renmin University of China. In 1988, he started work in the then-National Planning Commission, the predecessor of the NDRC.

Ten years later, he studied business at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and then attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He became vice director of the central group of financial and economic affairs office in 2003, becoming director in 2013.

Liu accompanied Xi on his tour to inspect Guangdong province in late 2012, soon after Xi was elected the Communist Party’s top leader.

Since then, Liu has played an increasingly important role in China’s economic policy decision-making.

Contact reporter Wu Gang (gangwu@caixin.com)