Journal of International Studies

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Party Congress was completed in Beijing earlier last week. Themed “deepening reform,” the Session had raised high expectations in and outside China about the new directions and initiatives the Party will adopt to address the country’s various problems, including its economic slowdown and other internal challenges. Foreign policy has not been a key topic for this domestically focused Session: Other than the creation of a “state security committee,” which is believed will cover foreign and national security issues, there is little mention of foreign affairs in the communique released after the Session on the November 12.  Despite this lack of a foreign policy focus, the decisions made at the Plenum, from an African observer perspective the meeting had potential implications for Africa. Globalization and the economic interdependence among countries have enhanced the butterfly effect of China’s own policy adjustments on others. As Africa’...

It almost looks as if they did it on purpose. Immediately after the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, a terse statement was released about wannabe reforms. Western corporate media screamed their dissatisfaction (actually concealing great satisfaction that stereotypes about China were about to stay safe and sound). Then the suggestion that more reform plans would follow in a week put a bug in  laowai  (foreigners') ears, and finally a comprehensive roadmap for radical change was published.  At the beginning of the weekend, foreign media in China rushed to write about the abolition of forced labor camps ( laojiao ), lands given to the peasants, the end of the one-child policy, the birth of a private banking system, the reduction of crimes punishable by death, reform of the residence system ( hukou ) and more.  The meaning of such momentous and diverse reforms can be summarized in one particular way: China is pushing...

BEIJING - After the Plenum that concentrated powers in the hands of China's top leadership and especially President Xi Jinping, the big questions concern how effective these powers will be how much power will go to the central leadership group tasked with designing and implementing reforms and how effective the National Security Council, in charge of external and internal security matters, will be.  Most of the opposition is likely to come from localities, which have the most to lose in this program of concentration of power in Beijing. For this reason, the new role of the judiciary, which according to the Plenum communique will be "authoritative" ( quanwei ), is significant.  This does not mean that the judiciary will be independent from the top leadership of the Party. The Party will give freer rein to judges and prosecutors at the provincial level in going after cases of corruption, which so far have mostly concentrated on the unhealthy ties between local a...

Recent news reports underscore the need for progress on transparency if reforms are to really succeed.

Both inside and outside of China, many expect great things from Xi Jinping. And he knows it.

Interviewee:  Elizabeth C. Economy , C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies Interviewer:  Beina Xu , Online Writer/Editor

The third plenum of Chinese Communist Party Congresses is often the time when the country’s rulers introduce major policy shifts. The Eighteenth Party Congress in November and, crucially, implementation over time of policies announced there offers the U.S. an opportunity to reassess China, to see whether top leaders Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang are interested in pursuing reform or will hew to the course of their predecessors. This opportunity could be wasted if the persistent myths that have long plagued American views of China are not dispelled. The key myths feature overstating Chinese economic prowess and understating clashing security interests between the China and the U.S. Myth #1: China is well on its way to surpassing the U.S. economically Reality: China is far from surpassing the U.S. and can do so only if helped by our failures. This is the generative myth, from which the others flow. In less than a generation, the world economy is supposed to have a new leader. Chi...

China’s future lies as much in maintaining political stability as in sustaining rapid growth.

As the Third Plenum begins a decade of reforms in China, the United States and Europe are coping with a lost decade of liquidity traps, growth stagnation, and sluggish recoveries. In the 1980s, the then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms and opening-up policies enabled China to industrialize through investment and export-led growth. Those reforms were supported by three decades of globalization, which rested on the ability of the West to absorb Chinese exports. In the coming decade, the economic reforms led by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will seek to fuel China's transition to consumption-led growth. However, these reforms will occur in a challenging international environment, amid what might be a lost decade in the West. What can we expect in the near term? In the past few months, China's new leadership has provided glimpses of economic reforms, which have now been officially launched. According to the communique announced at the c...

Analysis: Far reaching reforms were expected from China's much-hyped Communist Party summit this week. Instead, the meeting yielded confusion.

China’s party leadership just announced the country’s reform agenda that will guide government policymaking and implementation for the next decade.  Like previous such plenum documents, the announcements outline only broad priorities. Although the proposed reforms were billed as comprehensive and unprecedented, they are neither.  Yet the priorities they indicate signal a potentially significant change in the approach and direction of future economic policies. At the very core of the new agenda is the recognition that the role of government in the economy should change.  The plenum has called for the transformation of the government itself and the way it relates to markets, to the private sector and to society at large. Part of that transformation is reflected in the clearest message of the plenum document – namely, that markets – not government – should play the decisive role in allocating resources. Taken at face value, this new direction could potentially...