China's Reform Conundrum -- Party Of One
The Australian (along with the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times) is one of the few English language newspapers with consistently excellent reporting on China.Today's Australian has a insightful article on how Beijing wants environmental, economic, and legal reform (I agree), but how difficult it will be to achieve in a one party state (I also agree).
The article is entitled "China's classic reform conundrum: Beijing is earnest about cleaning up their act, but there are internal contradictions that business must get used to." It makes for good reading.
Comments (2)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endCraig Maginness - July 11, 2006 8:45 PM
As masterful a job as the Chinese government has done thus far managing the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, I have always thought that the real moment of truth will come when the middle class has developed to the point that they seek to translate their economic power into political power.
Assuming the whole train is not first derailed by crippling environmental problems or the unraveling of the government propped-up credit banking industry (I think at this point that the Chinese will be able to successfully circumnavigate these treacherous waters), the real spark which could send the whole Chinese experiment into the kind of market chaos that they have thus far strenuously avoided is if the communist party can't make that final leap of faith in distributing political power through market forces to coincide with the market distribution of economic power that seems so inevitable -- although perhaps it does not seem so inevitable to the Party faithful.
Alas, this conundrum is one of the many things that makes China such a fascinating and exciting place to be in the first half of the 21st century.
Craig Maginness
ExIn Global Strategies
China Law Blog - July 11, 2006 9:53 PM
Craig --
I agree with you on all points.