Political Quotes

“Madam President, it is typical for commentators to talk about how China is no longer really a communist nation. Of course, only the most ardent China apologist would question that China is still a one-party, authoritarian state. It is just that the economic policies pursued since the early 1980s are hard to square with Marxism-Leninism. I want to say to everybody: Not so fast. The sixth plenary session of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party contained a brand new historical resolution. This is only the third such paper since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. The first, historians will remember, was when Mao Zedong put out one in 1945, and the second one was Deng Xiaoping in 1981. Now, revising the historical narrative has been used in the past to set a stage for a whole new era in China and a whole new era for the Communist Party. Most China watchers see this paper as a consolidation of power by the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jingping. But to what end does he pursue? His rhetoric sounds more like Mao than the Chinese leader--any Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping. General Secretary Xi's historical resolution reads as a break from China's economic policies--what we thought was moving towards a free market system since the 1980s, and until the last few years, I would say it was moving towards a free market system. But it is too late to turn back now, right? Well, don't be so sure.…”