In the darkest moments of the financial crisis in 2008, former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao lectured a group of U.S. government officials and business executives in New York. “In the face of economic difficulties,” he said, “confidence is more precious than gold.”The Chinese economy then was teetering. Today it’s sputtering, facing the dimmest prospects in decades, and China’s leaders are learning the hard way exactly what Mr. Wen meant.Beijing unveiled a 31-point set of guidelines on Wednesday to bolster the confidence of the private sector. After three years in which the government cracked down on private companies, stamped out innovation and exalted state-owned businesses, the document represents a near-concession by the Communist Party that its campaign failed spectacularly.Stocks on the mainland and in Hong Kong, where many of China’s biggest private enterprises are listed, fell on Thursday but regained their footing on Friday. Some entrepreneurs rushed to p …
