Time of renewal for China

On November 15, 59-year-old Xi was elected at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China as the new general secretary 

of the party’s central committee. He will assume the position of president of China in March and, barring any major political upheavals in China, is likely to remain in the job until 2023.

By the time he is ready to leave office, he will be presiding over the world’s largest economy. What other changes might we see in China at that time? According to the outgoing president, Hu Jintao, the coming decade will be a time of renewal for the Chinese nation. For example, he predicts it would once again become a great maritime power and a global leader in technology. This would be supported by continued high growth, with GDP doubling by 2020 from its 2010 level.

Xi can also expect to set a record by presiding over the world’s longest-standing government in powe, as the Communist Party would then have racked up 73 years of unbroken rule.

Aside from these predictions, it is interesting to speculate on how Xi will put his own stamp on the office. His predecessors have all introduced a new development theme – Hu introduced the theory of “Scientific Outlook on Development” and undoubted-ly Xi will do the same to create a legacy of his own as president.

However, in strong contrast to political changeovers in the West, in China there is a great effort to emphasise harmony and continuity in the political process. This means the changes introduced by the 

new leadership will be gradual and should not deviate much from the on-going agenda 

of spreading development to the western and central regions, and maintaining social stability.

Although Hu said in his farewell speech that there would certainly be more moves towards a market-based system, he also stressed the importance of taking a balanced approach – one that continued with the doctrine of a scientific outlook on development and that emphasised social harmony.

Somewhat similar to Thailand’s sufficiency economy concept, this scientific doctrine of China stresses human values and a benign, humanistic approach to economic and social development, sustainable development, grassroots participation and emphasis on the environment.

Hu said his vision is of a beautiful and prosperous China – a nation “not merely of material abundance but with the tools necessary to deal with challenges”. This also resonates with Thailand’s theme of “resilience” in the face of unpredictable external events.

Hu deserves great credit for his considerable achievements as president of China for the past 10 years. The country 

has made tremendous strides on many fronts. Life expectancy and literacy have soared while hundreds of millions of people have climbed out of poverty.

With this legacy, one may speculate that Xi might focus on the softer aspects of nation-building such as redistributing wealth and closing the gap between the haves and have-nots.

It will take some time before we can discern the direction and style of the incoming president, but certainly the people and governments of Asia will be hoping for great things.