China Herald: Xi: power over reforms

Arthur Kroeber

After Ian Johnson, also economist Arthur Kroeber believes that president Xi Jinping is no longer seeing reforms as key for his tenure. Sticking to power is the key objective, he tells CSMonitor.

CSMonitor:

“Reforms to enhance productivity don’t seem to have got much traction…because that is not where Xi’s priorities are,” says Arthur Kroeber, head of GaveKal Dragonomics, an economic research firm in Beijing. “His priorities are ensuring that the party is in the driver’s seat with regard to everything, and maximizing his own power in the party.”

If all goes according to plan, and Xi is re-elected at the next party congress in 2017, as expected, Xi will be in power until 2022. So far his defining policy has been a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that has ensnared tens of thousands of party officials, from lowly village councilmen to the former head of China’s security forces, Zhou Yongkang and China’s top soldier, Gen. Xu Caihou.

More in CSMonitor.

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