Roderick MacFarquhar: China’s strong top man heads a very fragile system (EN)

MERICS China Podcast

English - June 30, 2016 00:00 - 16 minutes - 11.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 2 ratings
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Previous Episode: #19 China Dispute: Will Top-Down Leadership Achieve Political Stability? (EN)

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Xi Jinping has centralized power in China to unprecedented levels: he has sidelined both the prime minister and the state council and is trying to control everything himself says distinguished Harvard historian Roderick MacFarquhar. Xi might have – like Mao Zedong long before him - a vision and a sense of direction for China but he lacks the authority and historic legitimacy to implement his ideas. Even worse: his leadership style weakens the entire system. That’s Roderick Macfarquhar in the new Merics Experts podcast.