Paradigm shift

UNDER grey skies and amid a steady downpour, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a stirring address at the imposing Great Hall of the People, one of the 10 iconic buildings built by Mao Zedong to mark the 10th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. He added that the Chinese path offers “a new option for other countries and nations who want to speed up their development while preserving their independence…” In an interview with the state broadcaster China Global Television Network, China commentator Robert Lawrence Kuhn observed that Xi’s speech recognised the linkage and integration between achieving the goal of a “moderately prosperous society” by 2021 and the eventual goal of becoming an advanced nation by 2049. The President unveiled his vision of China’s high-minded and momentous goals in what was, at the end of the conference, encrypted, “Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a new Era”. Pointing to the dawn of a “new era”, Xi has underscored that the principal contradiction was now “between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life”. Commenting on the CPC’s decision not to earmark succession, the South China Morning Post pointed out that President Xi has made a decision of “far reaching consequences”.