From his first words as general secretary of the Communist party, Xi Jinping’s tone was different. He apologised for being late and went through a list of problems facing the country in general and his party in particular. He mentioned the aspirations of ordinary people several times, and used the word “socialism” only once.

Since then, Mr Xi has emphasised changed priorities. He instructed Communist party officials to end luxurious banquets and to quit using empty words – a tall order for bureaucrats in any country. Given the woodenness of Hu Jintao, whom Mr Xi will replace as president in March, the new leader’s call for a more down-to-earth style could be interpreted as a deliberate break with the past 10 years. That impression was reinforced with his December “southern tour”, a sweep through entrepreneurial Guangdong province that deliberately echoed the launch of economic reform by Deng Xiaoping.

These are promising signs. But we should be wary of reading too much into symbolism. Bold action is needed to foster the much-talked-about rebalancing of the economy towards domestic-led growth. That means empowering the consumer and the private sector at the expense of state-owned enterprises locked into a now-outmoded model of development. If policy were made with ordinary people in mind much would logically follow. Interest rates would be further liberalised, since the objective would shift from funnelling money to favoured monopolies to pricing risk and rewarding savers. More competition would be introduced, reducing prices and expanding choice. There would be less incentive to keep the exchange rate artificially weak since domestic spending firepower, not export competitiveness, would be the main policy consideration.