The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State by Elizabeth Economy

I'm fascinated by global affairs and China.  In the effort to understand the most current state of China I needed a better understanding of current President and Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.

What I learned is that Xi is doing much to reverse China's move towards economic reform.  It's as if he feels Deng's transformation of the country into an economic giant have gone far enough, now believing that it's time to re-exert Mao-style "reforms".

Along those lines Xi has consolidated much additional power under his personal authority.  Most troubling, he has changed the constitution to enable the extension of his power beyond 2022, when he would have initially stepped down.

Interestingly he has continued China's push for globalism (against the current trend in Europe and the U.S.), albeit because the country needs to do so in order to fund its massive undertakings.  The ultimate irony is that he must achieve high speed economic growth (acting like a pro-Western capitalist) even as he becomes more of an anti-Western, authoritative leader.

He has launched significant initiatives to curb China's deep-rooted government corruption and it's almost imaginable levels of environmental damage.  But the book demonstrates how massive each of the problems are that it's difficult to see how he can come close to solving either problem. 

Xi's biggest problem is a potential loss of legitimacy for the Government and the Party. The environmental problems are causing significant, growing ire from his population.  And the corruption makes it even more difficult to help the environment.  The book points out that those two issues could end up causing a mass revolt as they continue to worsen.

The biggest question in my mind is what happens in 2022.  Does another leader take over and reverse Xi's work, heading the country back to a Deng-style trajectory?  Or does Xi (or a Xi designee) continue the country's backwards slide?

It will be interesting to see what unfolds.  Thanks to this book I will be keeping a closer watch.