Willy Wo-Lap Lam - Chinese Politics in the Era of Xi Jinping: Renaissance, Reform, or Retrogression?

First published 2015
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Willy Wo-Lap Lam

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lam, Willy Wo-Lap.

Chinese politics in the era of Xi Jinping : renaissance, reform, or retrogression?

by Willy Wo-Lap Lam.

pages cm

Includes index.

1. ChinaPolitics and government20022. Xi, Jinping. I. Title.

DS779.46.L349 2015
951.0612dc232014028353

ISBN: 978-0-7656-4208-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-7656-4209-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71936-8 (ebk)

Watching, analyzing, and writing about China require patience, forbearance, clairvoyance, and, occasionally, inspiration from the heavens. The first two years of the administration of Xi Jinping proved much more eventfuland at times more excitingthan expected. Xi has pulled off a series of Machiavellian maneuvers to bolster his power in the Chinese Communist Party, the government, and the army. He has waged perhaps the largest anti-corruption crackdown since the end of the Cultural Revolution. And in foreign and military policy, Xi has not shied away from head-on confrontations with countries in the Asia-Pacific including the United States. China-watching since the Eighteenth Party Congress, however, could also be depressing. Xi has continued to mothball political and institutional reforms. He has repeatedly said no to universal values and global norms. As a big fan of Chairman Mao Zedong, he has also redoubled ideological control in areas ranging from the media to the classroom. While scholars and analysts of China should remain highly objective, it is comforting to know that I can share my upbeat as well as pessimistic views with so many China specialists and enthusiasts.

In the course of researching and writing this book, I have benefited from expert advice and timely tips, tea and sympathy, and much more from the following friends, colleagues, teachers, students, fellow China watchers, and folks concerned with the fate of China and Hong Kong (I have omitted the honorifics except for religious teachers; after all, we are mostly proletarians): Paul Andr, Fulton Armstrong, Bao Pu, Robbie Barnett, Bo Zhiyue, Jean-Philippe Bja, Nicholas Bequelin, John Berthelsen, Philip Bowring, Keith Bradsher, Kerry Brown, Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Anson Chan, Corina Chan, Chan Kin-Man, Lucy Chan, Priscilla Chan, Vivien Chan, Gordon Chang, Benjamin Charlton, Nicholas V. Chen, Helen Ngailun Cheng, Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng, Ching Cheong, Pearl Chih, Ivan Choy, Linda Choy, Venerable K.L. Dhammajoti, Audrey Eu, Jonathan Fenby, Isaac Stone Fish, Fong Chongyi, Edward Friedman, Brad Glosserman, Stephen Green, David Hale, Ryoichi Hamamoto, Harry Harding, Venerable Hin Hung, Michael Hsiao, Russell Hsiao, Cyd Ho, W. John Hoffman, Victoria Hui, Hung Ching-Tin, Y. Karunadasa, Sharon Kei, Maria Kruczkowska, Timmy Kwai, Daniel Kwan, Carol Lai, David Lampton, Diana Lary, Kevin C.T. Lau, Emily Lau, Lee Cheuk-Yan, Franky F.L. Leung, Theresa Leung, Angela Li, Li Chun Wai, Linda Li, Joe Lian Yi-Zheng, Allen P.F. Lee, Albert Lim, Louisa Lim, Kevin Lin, Perry Link, Sonny Lo, Paul Loong, Bruce Lui, Bernard Luk, Alexander Lukin, Christie LuStout, Mak Yin-Ting, Yasuhiro Matsuda, Claudia Mo, Jeanne Moore, Robert Morton, Mou Chi-Wang, Kit-Fai Naess, Ng Ka-po, Eiichi Oshima, Kenneth Quinones, Pan Siu-to, Minxin Pei, Hugo Restall, Joshua Rosenzweig, Louisa Sakai, Shinnosuke Sakai, John Seaman, David Shambaugh, Victor Shih, Masaru Soma, Song Yao, Akio Takahara, Tetsuya Toyoda, Steve Tsang, King Tsao, Tsoi Yiu-cheong, Sebastian Veg, Arthur Waldron, Father Harry Wong, Kan-Tai Wong, Linda Wong, Symon Wong, Wong Yiu-Chung, Wing Thye Woo, Alfred Wu, Guoguang Wu, Wu Lik-Hon, Yan Pengfei, Yeung Sum, Wei Hongyun, Ray Yep, Maochun Yu, Verna Yu, Ricky Yue, Zhang Baohui, Zheng Yongnian, Zhiwei Zhang, and Zhu Zhiqun.