As low-profile as he is, Hu Chunhua, the new Party boss of Guangdong Province, has nonetheless attracted curiosity over his policies, which could make or break his fortune as one of the Party’s sixth generation leaders. From Mimi Lau at South China Morning Post:
Zhu Jianguo, an independent political commentator based in Shenzhen, said: “Hu is relatively stronger than [predecessor] Wang Yang as he responds to issues with actions instead of the fancy catchphrases that Wang was known for.
[…] “He is more practical than Wang Yang. Instead of getting rid of small and medium-sized enterprises from Guangdong, Hu has adopted a more nurturing approach to moderate economic restructuring.”
[…] As party chief of Inner Mongolia for five years before moving to Guangdong, Hu increased economic growth, almost tripling the autonomous region’s per capita gross domestic product to more than US$10,000.
But Professor Niu Haipeng , of Renmin University, was quoted recently as saying that Hu Chunhua had established a worrying environmental record in the process, with growth achieved at the cost of environmental degradation and public health.
The article also mentions that during the Southern Weekly censorship incident this January, Hu, in order not to clash with his local propaganda comrades, failed to defend Guangdong’s tradition of relative press freedom.
See also “Little Hu” Thrown into the Guangdong Fire, via CDT.
See more on Hu Chunhua via CDT.
