Jonathan Fenby's Opinion Pieces

choi

Jonathan Fenby, The Bo Xilai Sideshow. New York Times, Apr 11, 2011 (op-ed; available now, but not searchable in search engine of NYT website).
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/1 ... xilai-sideshow.html

Three consecutive paragraphs:

"The current prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is firmly on the side of reform. Wang Yang, party secretary of China’s richest province, Guangdong, and Bo’s most vocal critic, has been talking about the need for a new model. A Chinese institute cooperated with the World Bank on a report calling for the reduction of the power of the state sector.

"I even found myself pulled into the debate in a minor way when editors at China Daily, the state English-language newspaper, read an advance copy of my new book on China and asked me to write an article arguing the need for change. It ran exactly as written.

"The reformers face formidable opposition. Wen and Li [Keqiang] may talk of change, but the Communist Party is more powerful than the government, and the once-revolutionary movement has become an agent of the status quo. Interest groups are strong. State enterprises exercise monopolies or oligopolies entwined with the political system. Rule by consensus impedes adoption of tough measures.

My comment:
(a) The piece is to be published tomorrow.
(b) Understandably the piece did not include the latest development befalling the Bos.
(c) The importance of the piece is quotation above, that China Daily (most likely a front on behalf of a faction in CCP) actively solicited an opinion piece arguing for the imperative of CHANGE--a word President Obama personified in the 2008 US presidential campaign.
(d) The NYT piece cites

Jonathan Fenby, Economic evolution must continue. China Daily, Mar 2, 2012
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/wee ... ontent_14737045.htm
(e) Jonathan Fenby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Fenby