China's Third Plenum – High stakes for China and a big deal for Australia

Few things are as important to the world over the next few decades as the reform of China's domestic financial markets. China's growing share of world trade, the size of its economy and its role as the world's largest creditor mean that what happens within China is directly relevant to the rest of the world.

The restructuring and opening up of China's financial markets have been at the heart of China's reform agenda for the last two decades.

A year after Xi Jinping took over at the helm of the Chinese Communist Party the upcoming Third Plenum will provide the clearest signals for some time about China's economic direction and capacity and commitment of the new leadership team to push through further reforms.