The Economist has offered a more sobering look at what the transfer of power to Hu means – or doesn’t mean – for democracy in China: “For all the speculation about Mr Hu’s reformist tendencies, there is little to suggest that his strategy for reforming the party differs much from Mr Jiang’s. It is likely that both men realise the need to adjust the party’s dictatorial and secretive style to something more in tune with China’s changed economic and social environment. And both accept that reform should proceed with caution, lest the forces it unleashes topple the party.” Read the full text here.
The same issue also has an accompanying article about the lack of transparency in the power transition, which notes that, “what this all boils down to is that the effect of the latest news is really anyone’s guess. This opaqueness might not have mattered greatly when China was isolated from the world, and when its internal upheavals affected only the Chinese. But it is a regrettable anachronism today, now that China has become an engaged and influential member of the community of nations. ” That story is here.
