China's Great Leap Outward
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East|November 01, 2017

Xi Jinping’s legacy may depend on an ambitious, expensive, but patched-together infrastructure programme

Howard W. French
China's Great Leap Outward

During Xi Jinping’s first five years in office, it’s become a journalistic commonplace to describe him as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

The signs and trappings of his immense clout are indeed apparent almost everywhere one looks in China. He’s mounted a sweeping but opaque crackdown on corruption, whose rich and powerful targets lend the campaign the appearance of a vendetta against potential sources of resistance within the system, real or imagined. He’s almost completely usurped the role of Li Keqiang, his prime minister, a post whose historical function has been to run the economy.

Beyond that, Xi personally chairs almost all the so-called leading small groups, the secretive, intimately sized consultative bodies where big policy matters get decided. He’s also systematically downgraded rival power structures, such as the Communist Youth League, which once incubated leaders for a system based at least informally on the notion of alternation between competing ruling factions.

As if this weren’t enough, Xi has overseen the construction of a personality cult, with his image and propaganda extolling his many merits already all but inescapable. Going into the 19th Congress of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which opened on October 18, Xi was said to have won a reworking of the country’s constitution and rules of leadership succession to accord him an exalted place in history, as a near-peer of Mao and Deng Xiaoping, and to allow him to stay in power well beyond the 10-year tenures that have been the norm since Deng’s time.

Denne historien er fra November 01, 2017-utgaven av Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra November 01, 2017-utgaven av Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK MIDDLE EASTSe alt
Golfing With The Enemy
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Golfing With The Enemy

Did Donald Trump's executives violate the Cuban embargo?

time-read
10+ mins  |
August 16, 2016
Super-Rich Syrians Wait for War's End
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Super-Rich Syrians Wait for War's End

Actor, author, playwright. Gill Pringle tries her hand at unravelling the mystery behind this enigmatic multi-hyphenate

time-read
10+ mins  |
July 01, 2016
Pam Codispoti
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Pam Codispoti

The mastermind behind the industry-shaping Chase Sapphire Reserve Card sets her sights on banking

time-read
2 mins  |
January 16, 2018
This Time It's The Economy
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

This Time It's The Economy

President Rouhani’s budget sets offprotests from people angry about unemployment and inflation

time-read
5 mins  |
January 16, 2018
Saudi Prince Counts On Support Of Citizens
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Saudi Prince Counts On Support Of Citizens

State-worker salary increases appeal to the people, but policy may throw the budget off track

time-read
3 mins  |
January 16, 2018
Stalin's Legacy Is Choking The Ukrainian Economy
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Stalin's Legacy Is Choking The Ukrainian Economy

The government has resisted pressure to lift a ban on land sales, despite pressure from the IMF and investors

time-read
4 mins  |
January 16, 2018
Catastrophe Bonds Survive A Stormy Year
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Catastrophe Bonds Survive A Stormy Year

The turbulence of 2017 couldn’t destroy a market for betting against disasters

time-read
3 mins  |
January 16, 2018
Riding The West Bank's Credit Boom
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

Riding The West Bank's Credit Boom

Increased consumer lending is creating a bubble in the West Bank

time-read
3 mins  |
January 16, 2018
You'd Be Crazy To Buy Pizza With Bitcoin
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

You'd Be Crazy To Buy Pizza With Bitcoin

Speculative fervour makes the cryptocurrency clumsy for commerce

time-read
3 mins  |
January 16, 2018
What If The President Loses His Party?
Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East

What If The President Loses His Party?

Trump has to figure out a way to work with Republicans in Congress, or the global economy may be at stake

time-read
6 mins  |
August 16, 2017