Xi rebuilding China's image with 'new normal'

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-12-15

Chinese president Xi Jinping talks at the Central Economic Work
Conference in Beijing, Dec. 11. (Photo/ Xinhua)

China's leaders wrapped up the three-day Central Economic Work Conference last week, determined to take measures to ensure "stable and relatively fast" economic growth in 2015, reports the state-run China Daily.

The pledge is deemed as part of the new norm in China, dubbed "Xinormal," said our Chinese language sister paper Want Daily.

Anti-corruption has been one main theme of Chinese president Xi Jinping's political agenda since he took office in 2012 and has since been implemented with strict laws and high efficiency. Xi's 5-in-1 proposal to reform the country includes bringing deep-rooted changes and reform to the economy, politics, society, culture, and ecology with a series of new regulations. National defense was later included to form the 6-in-1, the modernization of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

A Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms was announced at the third plenary session of CPC in 2013, laying out 60 steps of reform in 15 categories. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the document pinpoints the handling of "the relationship between government and the market," the market's decisive role in allocating resources," China's "active and steady push for the breadth and depth of market-oriented reforms" and "vigorously developing a mixed-ownership economy."

As Zheng Yongnian, head of the East Asia Institute at National University of Singapore, puts it, "I have never imagined China would go through such a massive transition after the 18th National Congress (in which Xi was elected China's new leader)." Zheng has openly predicted that Xi will be the "captain" that steers the nation after former leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping for the next 30 years.

Jon Huntsman, former US ambassador to China, said in The Times in April that "During his decade in office, Xi will become the first truly global leader to represent a country that for centuries has struggled with cohesion and unity," and "Xi Jinping has emerged as the most transformational Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping. His steady style exudes confidence while revealing little, capturing the attention of intellectuals worldwide."

In May, Xi first brought up the concept of China's new norms, right when China started to see apparent economic recession after a long period of surging growth. "China's development is still at a key strategic phase. We need to strengthen our faith, reboot from this periodic phase of economic development, and adapt to the new normal," said Xi.

By suggesting that the nation is to strategically face long-term slow growth, Xi is leading the country to persist in a "stable and relatively fast" economic growth, amid reforms and innovation, said Shanghai's The Paper.

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