China: President Xi Jinping's one-year report card
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Cheng Li, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, Isabel Hilton, the the founder and editor of www.chinadialogue.net, a bilingual Chinese English website and Louis Kuijs is Chief China Economist at Royal Bank of Scotland and a former IMF and World Bank economist.
Hong Kong (CNN) -- A year ago, China's new generation of leaders strode out onto a stage in the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Hong Kong (CNN) -- A year ago, China's new generation of leaders strode out onto a stage in the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
They were led by Xi Jinping, who took over from Hu Jintao as head of the Chinese Communist Party, which has ruled China for more than 60 years.
CNN asked three analysts
for their verdict on Xi's first year at China's helm in three key areas:
Domestic politics, the environment and the economy.
Domestic politics: A fiery start
Cheng Li is director of research and a senior fellow at Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center.
The Chinese saying "A new
leader lights three bonfires" vividly captures the momentum and
accomplishments of Xi's first year as party boss
Each of these "three bonfires" ---- the vigorous anti-corruption campaign,
the successful conclusion of thetrial of disgraced politician Bo Xilai,
and the comprehensive and deeper market reforms embraced at the third
plenum -- have granted him much needed public support and significantly
consolidated his power.
From the first day of his
tenure as general secretary of the Party, he admitted to the public
that the rampancy of official corruption was ruining the Party and the
country.
With Wang Qishan, his
most important political ally in the Politburo Standing Committee, Xi
launched a tough anti-corruption campaign. Within a year, 11 ministerial
and provincial-level senior leaders were arrested, including leaders
within the country's most formidable special interest groups like the
oil industry. Some critics may be cynical about the methods employed in
the anti-corruption campaign, but the campaign has already transformed
the behavior of Chinese officials.
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