Reforming Public Finance for the New Era

Abstract

Fiscal reform was high on the agenda at the outset of Xi Jinping’s administration, when a plan for comprehensive reform of the fiscal system was introduced in 2013 that promised a significant realignment of the central-local relationship as the end goal, to be completed by 2020. Reforms to date have focused on building institutions of financial control but without any significant realignment of revenues or expenditures (Wong 2021). Although intergovernmental reform is said to be continuing and now extends to the subnational levels, this re-iterates past reforms that have to date shown little effect. To restore the vitality of local finance will require a wholesale reform of the intergovernme..