Li Keqiang death: is China's reform era officially over?
Former premier was rare supporter of 'open-door policy' among Beijing's political elite
A senior Chinese politician sidelined by President Xi Jinping has died of a heart attack at the age of 68.
As premier, Li Keqiang was "nominally China's No. 2 leader" and was in charge of the economy until late last year. He was "once seen as a reform-minded contender to the country’s top leadership role", said CNN.
Speculation that the "reform era" in China is coming to an end has been gathering pace for months and with the passing of Li, those voices are only becoming louder.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What did the papers say?
Li was the only member of the Politburo Standing Committee to have "openly advocated" for the continuation of former leader Deng Xiaoping's "open-door policy", which "ran counter to the instincts of Xi Jinping", Willy Lam, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation think tank in the US, told CNN.
His death "means the loss of a prominent moderating voice within the senior levels of the Chinese Communist Party", Ian Chong, from the Carnegie China think tank, told the BBC, with "no one apparently being able to take over the mantle".
The consequences of this could be significant. The reform era was "characterised by political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth," Carl Minzner, an expert on Chinese law and governance at Fordham University in New York, wrote in a 2015 paper.
The death of Mao Zedong in 1976 had "cleared the way for a new mix of economic ideas", wrote Yuan Yang for the Financial Times earlier this year, but now, she added, many in China are "heralding the end of the reform era".
Xi has turned away from reform led by the private sector, positioned to make China "more attractive to foreign investors", said The Diplomat, to a "more cautious and balanced approach to economic development, embodied in the 'common prosperity' campaign".
Dake Kang, a Beijing-based correspondent for The Associated Press, wrote on social media earlier this year that he tells the "stream of visitors returning to China" after Covid restrictions "that we've entered a new era – the post reform era".
But how certain any of this is has been called into question. Predictions about economic affairs in China are always tricky, because politics in China is an "opaque black box", wrote Keith B Richburg for The Washington Post, so "nobody knows for sure" what is going on there.
What next?
Some believe that Beijing is in a reasonably strong position. China's economists "skipped straight from Marx to the free market theories of von Mises without a Keynesian interlude", said Yang. But if Chinese leaders invest in social infrastructure and services such as "national healthcare, a robust education system and unemployment credits", an "even better age might beckon".
Indeed, the "challenges" the nation is facing "don't necessarily mean China has now entered a period of decline", said Axios. Its economy, though growing at a "less-rapid rate", "remains massive" and is "still deeply intertwined with the global economy".
Xi's restructuring of China's economy towards high-tech industries could "eventually pull the economy out of the doldrums", it added. That development could "further bolster" Beijing's position that its preferred model is a "viable alternative to liberal democratic capitalism", or the "doomsayers may be correct", and China may be headed for a "long, slow decline".
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is expected to "unleash fresh fiscal stimulus" to "shore up its economic recovery", said Reuters. It will draw on a "well-used playbook that relies heavily on debt and state spending but falls short on the deeper reforms" suggested by some.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
5 doom 'n' gloom cartoons about the mess we're in
Cartoons Artists take on long-term pessimism, dystopian fears, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Church of England's legacy of slavery
The Explainer Should the CofE offer financial redress for its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade?
By The Week UK Published
-
Baffin Island: looking for narwhal in Arctic Canada
The Week Recommends An exploration of this island between mainland Canada and Greenland is ideal for the adventurous at heart
By The Week UK Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'Republicans want to silence Israel's opponents'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is there a peaceful way forward for Israel and Iran?
Today's Big Question Tehran has initially sought to downplay the latest Israeli missile strike on its territory
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
How could the Supreme Court's Fischer v. US case impact the other Jan 6. trials including Trump's?
Today's Big Question A former Pennsylvania cop might hold the key to a major upheaval in how the courts treat the Capitol riot — and its alleged instigator
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Is the next cold war a drone-swarm race between US and China?
Today's Big Question Both global superpowers are building up their capacity for surging robotic warfare. What happens next is anyone's guess.
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
How powerful is Iran?
Today's big question Islamic republic is facing domestic dissent and 'economic peril' but has a vast military, dangerous allies and a nuclear threat
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why are Republicans trying to change Nebraska's Electoral College vote?
Today's Big Question It's a chance for Donald Trump to block Joe Biden's path to re-election
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Is it time to end arms sales to Israel?
Today's Big Question Democrats urge restrictions following World Kitchen convoy deaths
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published