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
Chicago Tribune (April 8)
“The defiant outsider presidency of Donald Trump could go its own peculiar path for only so long before a crisis intervened, presenting a sudden test of competence. That moment happened when the Syrian government unleashed a poison gas attack on its own people. Trump passed this first test, we’re relieved to report.”
Tags: Competence, Crisis, Defiant, Outsider, Poison gas, Syria, Test, Trump
