The Economist Weekly: Views on China — Part 1
This glimpse is based on the Economist’s weekly edition published on October 2nd, 2021 in the Leaders section under the headline: China’s New Reality [5 min read]
The plethora of articles and opinions in the media on Chinese politics can become overwhelming for someone new to this space. This ongoing series is my attempt at consolidating the media coverage on this topic, highlight and supplement interesting points in the articles with commentary, and provide a glimpse to readers before they commit valuable time and energy.
The party must permeate every area of national life ¹
The author sets the tone immediately with a direct assault on China’s Communist Party. The article wastes no time and describes major decisions made by the Communist Party in recent times to tilt the scale of China’s economic project — after flirting with a state-driven capitalist agenda — back into a pseudo-Marxist ideology.
Mr. Xi is tackling real problems — indeed, many of them have parallels in the West ¹
The article attempts to contextualize China’s current problems and cites Xi Jinping’s 3 big socio-economic & political concerns at the moment. The author does this briefly without expanding on how and why these should be considered the big concerns for China. The focus of the article remains on the threats and potential economic fallout from China’s recent strategic calls with widely covered issues such as Evergrande, the crackdown on Chinese tech companies, etc.
In politics the danger is that Mr. Xi’s campaign degenerates into a cult of personality ¹
The final few paragraphs contained the most interesting predictions with the author citing 3 crucial concerns stemming from Xi Jinping’s current political doctrine. Several articles and writers have discussed China’s recent politics and their long-term dangers but this article’s theorizing of an implosion due to uncertain bureaucratic reaction, ongoing large-scale moral policing, and strict adherence to an early 20th-century insurgency doctrine (Maoism) is unique and presents a different perspective.
Final Thoughts -
This headline article in the Economist’s weekly magazine is a relatively easy read with a mild dose of economics, political strategy, and eastern philosophy.
Bottom line: Read further if interested in recent Chinese politics, pondering upon China’s predicament, and potential economic fallout in the long run.
References:
The Economist | China’s new reality is rife with danger | Updated on October 6th, 2021
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