Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of China, presided over the executive meeting of the State Council on May 19 to study and implement the overall work plan and recent measures for the deployment of building a unified national market. The meeting pointed out that “special governance should be carried out for the outstanding issues of local protection and market segmentation in key areas.” What is the “national unified market” that the Chinese government wants? Xi Jinping proposed this goal in 2021, why can’t it be pushed? Is the compulsory construction of a large unified market going back to the old path of the centrally planned economy? Is its essence to reduce local power and strengthen centralization?