The cryptic communique is of course only an abbreviated road map. It will take days, weeks and even months for its detailed implications to sink in. What's certain is that the "decisive role" of market reform implies the CCP at the helm, monitoring every step of the process.
It's like a ninja trying to tame a very powerful dragon non-stop. It will be an epic battle for the ages, to watch the CCP -- an immense structural bureaucracy inbuilt in the Chinese government -- perform this balancing act; matching its instincts for even stronger centralized control (not much glasnost allowed in the Internet, for example) with an explosion of social Darwinism caused by these "irrational" forces who couldn't care less about employment and social stability.
Gweilos -- or foreign barbarians in general -- will underestimate Chinese resolve at their own peril. When the Little Helmsman launched his own economic reform -- and brand of glasnost -- in 1978, he turned the CCP upside down, all around, and squared the circle; breakneck economic development providing leeway to manage political problems, and some political changes allowing for even more breakneck economic development.
So what if Xi and Li come up with a Deng remix -- like inventing a new concept of market with Chinese characteristics? The sky -- or China back to where it was for 18 of the past 20 centuries -- is the limit.
It's like a ninja trying to tame a very powerful dragon non-stop. It will be an epic battle for the ages, to watch the CCP -- an immense structural bureaucracy inbuilt in the Chinese government -- perform this balancing act; matching its instincts for even stronger centralized control (not much glasnost allowed in the Internet, for example) with an explosion of social Darwinism caused by these "irrational" forces who couldn't care less about employment and social stability.
Gweilos -- or foreign barbarians in general -- will underestimate Chinese resolve at their own peril. When the Little Helmsman launched his own economic reform -- and brand of glasnost -- in 1978, he turned the CCP upside down, all around, and squared the circle; breakneck economic development providing leeway to manage political problems, and some political changes allowing for even more breakneck economic development.
So what if Xi and Li come up with a Deng remix -- like inventing a new concept of market with Chinese characteristics? The sky -- or China back to where it was for 18 of the past 20 centuries -- is the limit.
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