I was returning home from a two-week trip in China when I heard that Chinese President Xi Jinping gave himself the authority to become leader of his country indefinitely.
The news put my visit into context. I’ve been to China a number of times, but this time something was different. Of course the country is still growing fast, but what surprised me is that its connection to the rest of the world now seems to have been arrested.
Typically when a country builds more roads, airports and cellular networks, it also becomes more integrated into global culture and communication systems. Not so China right now. Sure, China has new roads and cell phone networks galore, but its connectivity to the West, which had been slowly growing, seems to have stopped or even reversed, a change locals tell me began when Xi became president in 2013.
Fordham University Law School professor Carl Minzer’s new book “End of an Era,” spells out this turn of events. Minzer argues that China’s reform era is ending and outlines the looming risks of instability that this change is creating.
Source : Yahoo
No comments:
Post a Comment