Is President Xi Jinping an economic reformist? That’s the key question on China’s future for one European business leader and veteran China watcher.

Joerg Wuttke believes Xi will turn his attention to market-oriented reforms when he’s done with his current political and ­military overhaul.

Wuttke, former president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, has more than three decades of experience dealing with business and political leaders on the mainland.

He said that Xi would need to consolidate his power and stamp out ­internal divisions within the party before he could carry out a programme of economic reform.

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“In the army, officers bought their jobs. The secret service was spying on its own leaders. And the ­ideology of the party was basically empty,” Wuttke said ­of the ­political climate when Xi ­became general secretary of the Communist Party in late 2012.

“I think Xi has changed all three, which is quite an achievement – the army, secret service and the party.”

Xi’s massive campaign to root out corruption has seen tens of thousands of “tigers” and “flies” – corrupt officials big and small – disciplined and jailed. Among the biggest scalps were Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in charge of the police and court system; Ling Jihua, who was the top aide to former president Hu Jintao; and Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, who were vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission.

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Meanwhile, there has been scant progress on economic liberalisation in recent times, even after a pledge was made at the party congress in late 2013 to give the market “a decisive role in ­allocating resources”.

According to Wuttke, the economic liberalisation document unveiled four years ago was “a ­diluted reform road map” based on a blueprint drafted by the World Bank and the State Council’s Development Research Centre under the leadership of Liu He – Xi’s trusted economic adviser.

But Wuttke noted that it was up to Xi to determine when to introduce the proposals made by “open-minded economist” Liu. “President Xi has to make decisions about when to use his political capital wisely. Apparently he is not ready yet to do that on the economy right now.”

To start with, Xi must tame the “rent seekers and interest groups” that are making it “politically difficult to [bring about] change”, Wuttke said.

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The anti-graft campaign has also created a situation where officials may be nervous about, and reluctant to embrace, daunting economic reforms.

Xi “understandably wants nothing other than solidarity, predictability and calm” at the once-in-five-years party congress later this year, Wuttke said. But he ­noted Xi could run into trouble if he pushed his reforms too hard.

The mainland economy rebounded in the last quarter, but it did so through government stimulus measures. Beijing has also recently stepped up intervention in the property and stock markets and even the exchange rate. While it managed to get the yuan a nominal global currency status from the International Monetary Fund, it has reeled in liberalisation ­efforts and made financial risk management the priority.

“We might have to wait until Xi feels confident with his economic team ... we will notice economic reforms [when] he feels he doesn’t need to pay tribute to rent seekers and interest groups,” Wuttke said.

Critical to this will be whether Xi can line up a team at the ­autumn congress that’s strong enough to make changes after he highlighted the need to ward off systemic financial risks and keep a lid on property prices.

“It is a difficult task to curtail financial risks,” Wuttke said. “Just like trying to fix a car when you’re driving it at 200km/h.”