By Hong Soo-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - China's leadership is trying to make a big shift in the country's economic policies for qualitative growth instead of its debt fuelled growth that was maintained for the last few decades. As a result, China's economy is likely to maintain a so-called L-shaped trajectory for the next significant period of time.

Such predication is not an exaggeration considering the May 9th interview article of People's Daily, which occupied a third of the front page and the whole second page of the newspaper. The flagship newspaper of the ruling Communist Party of China cited an unidentified 'authoritative' figure as saying that boosting growth by increasing leverage was like 'growing a tree in the air' and that a high leverage ratio could lead to a financial crisis. The source claimed that the country's economic growth will not see a U-shaped or a V-shaped rebound. It seems the People's Daily has clearly delivered the Chinese economic authorities' message that China should now stop shouting its superficial economic growth target of 6 to 7%. In other words, the newspaper signaled a big shift in the economic policy that focuses on quality rather than quantity.

Chinese President Xi Jingping and Premier Li Keqiang, the two topleaders of China, seemingly claimed that China's economy needs to change itsbasic framework./ Source from China News Communication (CNS)

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This is a very rare case for the Communist Party mouthpiece to express the government's policy stance through an interview article of a specific figure. Despite the interviewee not being identified, there is a fair chance that the figure was either President Xi Jinping, who claimed Xiconomics since the beginning of the year, or Premier Li Keqiang, who is responsible for China's economic policy.

Of course, the source could be someone very close to the two top leaders. If this is the case, one of the strongest candidate is Liu He, one of Xi's top economic aides and the chief of the General Office serving the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs. Another strong candidate is Ning Jizhe, one of Li's top aides and the director of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Whatever the case, it's now clear that the Chinese economy is heading for big economic policy shift.