Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the AsianInfrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing on January 16. It seems that hisattendance was aimed to tell the world that he would be taking the reins ofChina's economy./ Source from Xinhua News

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - China's biggest political annual sessions, the 4th Session of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, China's top advisory body) and the National People's Congress (NPC, China's top legislature), will kick off on March 3 and run until March 15. It seems the 'Two Sessions' will become a place where 'Xiconomics' replaces 'Likonomics'.

According to a well-informed source involved in China's political world on Wednesday, Premier Li Keqiang has been leading the overall economic policies since taking office in March 2013. A few months later, the term "Likonomics" to describe the central tenets of Premier Li was introduced. However, his economic management crying out for no stimulus, deleveraging, and structural reforms, showed poor performance. He tried to retrieve the situation last year by belatedly shouting "new normal", which means slower, high-quality growth. Disappointed with Li's economic management, Xi Jinping has personally declared supply-side structural reform since the end of last year. Since then, the term 'Xiconomics' has been introduced.

The advent of 'Xiconomics' was well timed as well. The 12th Five-Year Plan, introduced by Hu Jintao, ended last year and the 13th Five-Year Plan had to be set up. Xi Jinping did not miss the chance and assigned Liu He, Xi's top economic adviser the task of drafting the 13th Five-Year Plan. Practically, he externally declared his intention to seize China's economic reins through Xiconomics starting this year.

Considering the emergence of Xiconomics, the agenda of the upcoming 'two sessions' is obvious. Most of all, it's clear that the representatives will discuss specific measures for supply-side reform such as settling companies' overproduction, alleviating inventory and debt, and strengthening weak industries, will be discussed. Besides, the Two Sessions will obviously review innovative policies for active promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative and anti-corruption drive. In addition, measures related to poverty-relief, and the community of common destiny will likely to be discussed. These all prove that Xi Jinping has seized economic power with what he has been stressing on.