China is “entirely confident in, and capable of, winning the battle to prevent and resolve financial risks”, Vice-Premier Liu He said on May 15 as the country’s top political advisers called for strengthening measures to prevent financial risks.

“China has made positive progress in strengthening its financial regulatory system and resolving financial risks since the Party’s 19th National Congress in October under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, with Xi Jinping, general secretary of the committee, at the core,” he told a special consultative meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body.

At the meeting Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC, said prevention and control of financial risks concerns China’s national security and overall development and is a “major pass” for China’s pursuit of high-quality development.

Liu said that the financial sector should focus on serving the real economy and the country’s prudent and neutral monetary policy stance, and that strict regulatory policies should be coordinated to establish a mechanism to prevent and resolve risks.

“China has many favorable conditions and will actively solve problems that have occurred in its way forward through reform and development,” he said.

The CPPCC regularly holds special meetings to provide advice on major issues for policymakers.

CPPCC national committee members present at May 15’s meeting said that while the country has made much headway in putting financial risks under control so far, authorities must make more efforts to reduce risk.

“The authorities have … placed financial risks largely under control and safeguarded the bottom line by preventing systemic financial risks,” said Shang Fulin, deputy director of the economic committee of the CPPCC.

“Our surveys, meanwhile, show that pressure of systemic financial risk remains quite heavy,” Shang, former chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said.

Shang said risks mainly come from rising macro leverage levels, the real estate market, local government debt, irregular financial activities and the lack of a mature social credit system.

He said prevention of financial risks from the property market should be put higher on the agenda and real estate bubbles should be resolved to prevent emerging risks.