China's President Xi Jinping speaks during a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 7, 2018. Fred Dufour/Pool via REUTERS

BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping will make a major speech on Tuesday to mark the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Xi will speak at a conference to be held at the Great Hall of the People from 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Tuesday, Xinhua said on Sunday. The report was in line with what diplomatic sources had previously told Reuters.

Former leader Deng Xiaoping initiated China’s historic reform and opening up in 1978, followed by a series of capitalist experiments that lifted much of China out of poverty and turned it into an economic powerhouse.

China’s trade war with the United States is spurring some Chinese entrepreneurs, government advisers and think tanks to call for faster reforms in the world’s second-largest economy and the freeing up of a private sector stifled by state controls.