Deng died in 1997 aged 92, and China holds a major event every 10 years to commemorate his birth. 03:09 Deng Xiaoping’s role in transforming China Deng Xiaoping’s role in transforming China The State Post Bureau said on Monday that it would issue two new commemorative stamps, and last week Jiefang Daily, the official newspaper … Read more
On July 18 this year, the third plenum concluded with a proposal for “further comprehensive deepening [of] reform”, a continuation of China’s pragmatic approach to development that Western analysts often underestimate. Long-term reform is a challenge. In Western democracies, political candidates campaign on promises of change, but after one or two terms, little may actually … Read more
It said: “They shouldered the same mission: to modernise China, but they were faced with different circumstances.” But Western critics of Xi remain sceptical about his pledges to reform the economy. They have pointed out that China’s growth rates have significantly slowed over the past decade while Beijing still appears to prioritise state-controlled enterprises over … Read more
Yet there are also similarities between the past and present. Some observers, such as historian Niall Ferguson, have argued that the present era is one of Cold War II. The much-heralded post-Cold War ethos of win-win globalisation and free trade appears to have given way to a rude awakening that intense strategic rivalries between great … Read more
On Tuesday the country released weaker-than-expected growth figures for the year’s first half, prompting some investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, to cut their annual growth forecast for the world’s second-largest economy. As Xi prepared to deliver a work report behind closed doors, the party’s leading theoretical journal Qiushi published a rallying cry by the Chinese … Read more
“Owing to these reform measures, the Chinese economy has not only sustained robust growth but also more than doubled since 2012, cementing the country’s global status as a major growth contributor,” the article said. It also compared Xi with paramount leader Deng at length, saying both carried forward the mission to achieve China’s modernisation. However, … Read more
“Development is the hard truth,” Deng said, and all debates about whether reform policies were capitalist or socialist should stop. Instead, support should go to whatever reforms benefited productivity, the overall strength of the country and living standards of the people. Generations of Chinese leaders have stayed true to that principle. President Xi Jinping, who … Read more
China’s ruling Communist Party elite will meet from July 15 to 18 for the long-awaited third plenary session, a gathering expected to shed light on the development direction of the world’s second-largest economy amid intense external challenges. It is expected to be a defining moment of President Xi Jinping’s third five-year term as the party’s … Read more
The 370 or so members of the committee, chosen at each twice-a-decade national congress, include the party’s top decision-making Politburo, as well as ministers, provincial party secretaries, senior generals and heads of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They usually gather for seven plenary sessions over the committee’s five-year term. The third plenum has been a landmark event … Read more
More than 2,000 years of governance in ancient China has given us the impression that the Chinese legal system has a significant “genetic defect”. So I think my life has been fulfilling because I have been able to think about China’s future based on historical comparisons between Chinese and Western legal systems, which is also … Read more
