NYT on Xi and China

choi

(1) Ian Johnson and Jane Perlez, A Chinese Leader Returns Amid Tumult. New York Times, Sept 16, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/1 ... umult-in-china.html
("deep rifts in the party over personnel and policies")

Two theories:

"Some political insiders say Mr Hu [Jintao] is escalating several maritime disputes to make the case that he needs to stay on. * *  * A campaign to push the military to pledge its loyalty to the party has also been used to bolster support for his leadership. Some commentaries in military newspapers have called on officers to unify around the party led by Mr Hu.

"Some others, however, have a slightly different view. They say the power struggles have weakened civilian control, which has already slipped in recent years. This has allowed the military to push its agenda, including enforcing territorial claims.


(2) Thomas L Friedman, The Talk of China; The coming transitiojn is about much more than a change in leadership. New York Times, Sept 16, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/1 ... -talk-of-china.html

Quote:

"Yet, among my Chinese interlocutors, I find a growing feeling that what’s worked for China for the past 30 years — a huge Communist Party-led mobilization of cheap labor, capital and resources — will not work much longer. There is a lot of hope that Xi will bring long-delayed economic and political reforms needed to make China a real knowledge economy, but there is no consensus on what those reforms should be and there are a lot more voices in the conversation. Whatever top-down monopoly of the conversation the Communist Party had is evaporating.

"As a result, you hear more and more that 'the risks of not reforming have become bigger than the risks of reforming.' No one is talking revolution, but a gradual evolution to a more transparent, rule-of-law-based system, with the people having more formal input. But taking even this first gradual step is proving hard for the Communist Party.

My comment:
(a) Mr Friedman is visiting China.
(b) One may read through the column quickly.