Chinese Vice-Premier Liu tells Davos it is impossible for China to return to planned economy

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He told the World Economic Forum that China will support the growth of the private economy in 2023, and that it was impossible for the country's to return to a planned economy.

Liu, who has been vice premier since 2018 and is considered to be China's economic tsar, said at the forum that it was impossible for China to take the path of a planned economy as some claimed.

Liu did not specify who made the claims but his repudiation of an economic model associated with China's Maoist past comes at a time when Beijing is looking to signal to the world that economy, rather than controlling COVID-19, was back at the top of its agenda.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Mark John)