Promise and Peril: Neoliberalism and Economic Reform in China
On October 16th, 2022, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held its 20th National Congress. This twice a decade conference made international headlines after Xi Jinping was appointed for an unprecedented third term as General Secretary of the CCP and Chairman of the Central Military Committee (Yang). Furthermore, the CCP Constitution was amended to include the “Two Establishes” and “Two Safeguards,” which “defines Xi as the ‘core’ leader of the party and cements his ideas as the guiding principles of China’s future development” and “assures Xi’s ‘core’ status within the party and the party’s centralised authority over China” respectively (Reuters). Both of these actions show Xi’s further consolidation of power as the core leader of China, but were largely anticipated by outside analysts. In fact, many of the actions taken by the 20th National Congress were set up by the 19th National Congress in 2017. During this previous congress, presidential term limits originally set in place by Deng Xiaoping were removed and so-called “Xi Jinping Thought” was officially added to the CCP Constitution (Doubek). As party policy and control centralize around Xi Jinping, it is worth exploring the ideological path he has set China on, and the implications this has for China's economy and the world.
Meet the Student: Luke Miller
Luke Miller is a fourth year student in the Reilly Program studying Computer Science and Chinese, and will graduate in the Spring of 2024. He is originally from Dayton, Ohio. He took this course as part of his Chinese major and to explore the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of countries in Asia. As a Chinese major, he is especially interested in China’s unique socioeconomic system and decided to focus his research upon it. He sought to better understand so-called “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”, and break down what this system truly is and share his findings.