Thursday, May 24, 2012

Zhang Lijia on political reforms - Hangout-on-air

Lijia-india
Zhang Lijia
The famous author Zhang Lijia discussed earlier this week in the New York Times the prospect - of better the lack thereof - of political reform in China. 

In Google+ Hangout-on-air we will discuss early next week why she does not think the upcoming leadership is ready for that task. In an interview we will discuss further Zhang Lijia's experiences and her main take-away:
Implementing real reforms, not merely a tweak here and there, will demand courage. Will Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, the two men who will most likely take power in the autumn, be up to it? 
I doubt it. They are selected to lead the nation because they’ve proven not only their ability to govern but also their loyalty to the regime. Like all top party leaders, they understand how to place the party’s honor before the country’s interest. This next generation of leaders is unlikely to rock the boat — and that’s unfortunate.
In the future we will open up those interviews for a larger audience, but this time, you can ask Zhang Lijia questions, or challenge her views. The interview, planned for Monday or Tuesday, will be live-broadcasts and announced in this space. You can keep on asking questions by email or in the comments until the broadcast is over.

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1 comment:

Chris Devonshire-Ellis said...

The problem with reform in China is that there are too many vested personal interests in too many SOEs. When SOEs are 90% of China's biggest and most strategic companies, that's a huge problem. (India to compare has SO involvement in just 10% of its companies). Getting reform into place in areas where SOEs need reform - weaning them off state subsidies for example - is going to attract a lot of resistance. So instead of economic, social and commerical considerations influencing reform, its all cronyism, political influence instead. I can't think of any government anywhere that ever was really that good at running businesses - and I don't think the Chinese are going to break that mold either. No reform at SOEs - being much of China's economy - no reform in China. Not good and I can't see how they're goingt o overcome that.