前美官员：习近平是共产主义忠实信徒

choi

VOA Chinese, Mar 13, 2015.
www.voachinese.com/content/china-xi-20150312/2678100.html

Quote:

"前美国国务院负责东亚和太平洋事务的助卿坎贝尔 (Kurt Campbell) 星期四在华盛顿的詹姆斯敦基金会 [The Jamestown Foundation] 的研讨会 * * * 提到习近平担任国家副主席时来美访问，他陪同美国副总统拜登带领习近平到美国爱奥华州参访，他个人在一个场合中对习近平的近距离观察。他说，习近平对中国早期共产主义社会的念兹在兹，让他不禁认为，习近平是中国最后一个共产主义信徒。* * * '可以看到，试图重建共产主义理念的想法非常吸引他 [习]。我看到我的中国朋友 [My Chinese friend; ie, 习] 用力点头时心里在想，这是中国最后一个共产主义信徒。这个人真的从根本上相信，1940年代的黑白照片可以让那些极为不同的、正走在通往21世纪途中的都市人产生共鸣。'

"尽管习近平上台后大力打击腐败受到许多赞赏，但是坎贝尔认为，这种做法可能对改革产生反效果。* * * '他们 [中国 '中层官僚'] 因为考虑到可能的后果，现在已经较不敢暗地里做一些涉及腐败的事，但是执行这些政策的人没有想到的是，他们在这么做的同时又要这些人准备好去解决国企改革的挑战和政府投资。如果你是一个官僚人员，你最有可能做的就是低着头，什么事都不做。'

"坎贝尔说，他对中国最大的担忧不是经济放缓，而是中国位于金字塔顶端的富人，对中国长期前景和近期发展的看法。他说，中国财富正在大量外流，最顶级的富人正在用脚 '投票'

Note:
(a) The Jamestown Foundation’s Fifth Annual China Defense and Security Conference. The Jamestown Foundation, Jan 20, 2015
www.jamestown.org/press/events/s ... 2b35e99b50fffbcaf54
(The conference to be held Thursday, March 12, 2015 8 AM – 5:00 PM, at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC; Tickets are $65)
(b) The only news report I can find about the conference is as follows.

William Lowther, Campbell Urges US, PRC Not to Meddle. Taipei Times, Mar 14, 2015 (available now).
www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/03/14/2003613522
(“Campbell said that he had spent quite a bit of time with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and that Xi had a ‘very hard-headed’ approach to security dynamics. Xi’s predecessors in Beijing were elderly men, but Xi was often ‘the last man to leave the bar,’ he said, adding that Xi was “extraordinarily engaging and comfortable in his own skin’“)
* Regarding "the last man to leave the bar."  I do not know why the journalist emphasized it. Definitely not a phrase, the words literally meaning what they say. My speculation is Mr Campbell alluded to 中国最后一个共产主义信徒, but then why the journalist (Lowther) precedes “last man” with “predecessors in Beijing were elderly men” and “often.”
* hardheaded (adj): "stubborn, willful"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hard-headed

choi

I was stuck for half a day about the meaning of “the last man to leave a bar.” Then a second VOA report comes out, derived from the same conference.

坎贝尔：大国对台选举动作可能有意外后果. VOA Chinese, Mar 13, 2015.
www.voachinese.com/content/us-taiwan-20150313/2679511.html