The forces awaken

Xi Jinping has a new catchphrase: “New productive forces.”

This phrase appeared in official disclosure for the very time during Xi's trip to Heilongjiang in early September.

At a symposium, Xi called on officials to:

• “Integrate scientific and technological innovation resources, lead the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries, and accelerate the formation of new productive forces.”

So what are "new productive forces?"

• We interpret this as a call for commercialization of technology and the scaling up of small, innovative companies into larger, sustainable ones.
• These technologies and companies will then hit a critical threshold at which they can sustainably contribute to economic growth, employment, and innovation – hence, play their role in the economy as "productive forces."

Get smart: Xi has tolerated a weaker economy so long as China was improving its innovative capacity.

• But the call to accelerate commercialization and scale up of tech industries indicates that Xi's patience is running out.

Get smarter: It's not clear what this means in practice. We expect Xi and other top officials to start fleshing out a policy program to promote new productive forces in the weeks and months ahead.