Everybody who loves Mr Xi, say yes
The Communist Party calls for wide-ranging economic reforms and gives itself new tools to implement them
COMMUNIST Party plenums are rituals of unchanging arcana. The closed-door, four-day conclave of some 370 senior party leaders that ended in Beijing on November 12th was a typical example, as usual summing up its decisions in a gnomic communiqué full of ambiguities. Yet a parsing of the document suggests President Xi Jinping (pictured above, centre) is tightening his grip on power, and with it his ability to achieve breakthroughs in economic and social reforms.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Everybody who loves Mr Xi, say yes”
From the November 16th 2013 edition
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If so, it is a significant, symbolic moment
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