Chinese Leaders Are Holding A Meeting Next Week, And They Say They're Planning 'Significant' Reforms

Chinese communist leaders to hold major reform planning meeting next week

BEIJING (AP) - China's ruling Communist Party says its leaders will meet late next week to craft a long-range economic blueprint for the country.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the party's Politburo announced after a meeting Tuesday that the 18th Party Central Committee's Third Plenary Session will be held Nov. 9-12 in Beijing.

Party leaders have promised significant but unspecified reforms, while analysts say the most likely changes will be to the financial system.

No information about the agenda of the meeting was provided. However, such sessions have in the past been a platform for the announcement of economic programs.

That was most significant in December 1978 when the session cemented Deng Xiaoping's new direction of reform and opening that set China on the course for its massive economic transformation.