ASSESSMENTS

The Chinese Leadership's Reform Strategy Comes With a Risk

Mar 14, 2018 | 17:00 GMT

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech in September, 2015.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech in September, 2015. The sweeping political and socio-economic reconfigurations that President Xi Jinping helped guide during his first term in office has left the Chinese leadership to wrestle with a new set of strategic choices.

(LINTAO ZHANG/Pool/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The next few years will determine whether China's leaders have the commitment and ability to adapt to economic changes and follow through with necessary reforms.
  • Chinese President Xi Jinping will need to retain a firm grip on power while at the same time meeting the rising expectations that come with that level of authority.
  • Beijing aims to reshape local governments' behavior and lower its growth target, paving the way for more sustainable economic growth.
  • Trade pressure from the United States and a slowing economy will test Beijing's resolve as it strives to restructure its economy, challenging its deleveraging campaign and its attempts at enforcing environmental reforms.

Four decades ago, China created a political and economic framework that encouraged rapid growth. Those policies' successes have left China substantially transformed, but they also brought about massive changes and problems that the state's governing system is only now beginning to address. The sweeping political and socio-economic reconfigurations that President Xi Jinping helped guide during his first term in office have left the Chinese leadership wrestling with a new set of strategic choices. The next few years will determine whether China's leaders have the commitment and ability to adapt to the changes and to follow through with necessary reforms while at the same time meeting the rising expectations that accompany economic prosperity and juggling the country's competing social, economic, political and security challenges....

Subscribe to view this article

Subscribe Now

Subscribe

Already have an account?