Foreign Policy (November 28)
After engineering “changes in China’s leadership succession rules so that he can preside over his country for life,” Xi is now confronting “a crisis that may come to be seen as an ideal test of the middle-income trap theory.” Deep down, Xi probably realizes “that at some point China’s political system will have to adapt for the country to continue to modernize” and avoid this trap. But for Xi, much like other “leaders who concentrate immense power in their own hands,” the problem is that “no moment ever quite looks like a good one to make serious, substantive change.”
Tags: Adapt, China, Concentrate, Crisis, Leaders, Leadership, Middle-income trap, Modernize, Political system, Power, Rules, Substantive change, Succession, Test, Xi
The Times (November 19)
“Middle-earning families will be nearly £20,000 worse off over the next six years,” according to “research carried out for The Times,” analyzing the tax impact of Jeremy Hunt’s new budget “on people’s incomes, as wages go up with inflation but tax thresholds remain frozen.”
Tags: £20 thousand, Hunt, Impact, Incomes, Inflation, Middle-earning families, Research, Succession, Taxes, Wages, Worse
The Economist (March 24)
“Constitutionally Mr Putin cannot stand in 2024, and from now on political life will be dominated by the question of succession and expectation of his departure.” There is likely to be a generational sea change as the children and grandchildren of the glasnost and perestroika (openness and restructuring) sown by Gorbachev come to the fore. There will no doubt be tension. Putin’s very “own survival and preservation of the system he now presides over will be his sole objective.”
Tags: Constitution, Generational, Glasnost, Gorbachev, Perestroika, Putin, Sea change, Succession, Survival
Financial Times (September 8)
“Dealmakers salivate over Japan Inc succession survey,” reads the headline. A survey on corporate succession by Japan’s Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is being conducted on all first and second section TSE listed companies. The survey “is primarily an attempt to establish just how seriously Japan’s chief executives are taking the country’s corporate governance code a year after it was laid down,” but it may also reveal firms that, lacking a suitable successor, are open to acquisition by foreign companies.
Tags: Acquisition, Dealmakers, Governance, Japan Inc., METI, Succession, Survey, TSE
Reuters (February 15)
China has endorsed Kim Jong-il’s succession plans. China’s public security minister, Meng Jianzhu, publicly congratulated Kim’s youngest son Jong-un on his recent promotion to vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission. China’s endorsement of the North Korean dynasty appears to spring from “worries that any regime change in the North could cause a flood of refugees to cross its border, precipitate reunification of the peninsula on the South’s terms and bring American influence right up to its border.”
Tags: China, Jong-un, Kim Jong Il, North Korea, Succession
