Tag: Mao Zedong

Defying decades of political tradition, China's most powerful man is going gray. Silver streaks in President Xi Jinping's hair spotted at the annual national legislative session, which began March 5, have captured attention and stirred speculation among China watchers as to what the radical change might mean. In official portraits and in public, top Chinese leaders -- who are usually in their 60s or older -- have long sported impeccable jet-black hair. But the trend has become more pronounced since the 1990s. "Xi Jinping wants to debunk this tradition to make himself look more like an ordinary Chinese citizen, a man of the people." A softened image This populist image has been carefully cultivated by the Chinese leader since he came to power in late 2012. "(Not dyeing his hair) could be a strategy to diminish criticism that he's building a Mao-style personality cult," said Lam. Political signals Observers can already count a growing number of senior officials showing their natural hair color in public. And if past leaders dyed their hair black to illustrate their health and vigor, 65-year-old Xi doesn't seem to have such a need, as one of the youngest Chinese heads of state in recent years. When officials ditched their Mao suits in favor of Western-style suits in the 1980s, it was an unequivocal message about the country's opening to the outside world.

After becoming the leader of the Communist Party of China in 1978, following Mao Zedong’s death two years earlier, Deng launched a program of reform that ultimately saw China become the world’s largest economy in terms of its purchasing power in 2014. Deng recognised that the outcomes produced by the planned economy were poor, with more than 60% of the population living in poverty. That’s why he launched a series of measures such as opening up the economy to foreign trade and investment. The impact of the reforms The outcomes of Deng’s reforms have been without historical peer. Compared with other centrally-planned economies such as the former Soviet Union, this made the task of shifting labour from producing low-productivity agricultural output to higher productivity industrial goods easier. SOEs may account for one-fifth of China’s value-added output and employment. They observed that this compared favourably with international standards, including with the US. The prominent and vibrant role the private sector plays in China today means that its economic growth may be more sustainable than some of its critics imagine. For example, in terms of subjecting Chinese firms to increased competition from overseas firms, China’s trade-weighted average tariff in 2000 stood at 14.7%. Overall, China is less open to foreign investment than high-income countries and many emerging markets as well.

BEIJING (AP) — Come to any event at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing, and you’re bound to see red. As the hulking venue for official pomp and ceremony hosts the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament this month, flags of scarlet line the building’s rooftops, red carpets cover its floors and hostesses in long ruby-colored dresses welcome dark-suited delegates. Red has long be special in Chinese culture, representing good fortune — but not necessarily its rulers. For centuries, China’s emperors were equated with the color yellow while they surrounded themselves with walls of deep vermilion. Not until after the Communist Party swept to power in 1949, did red, the universal color of communism, dominate political imagery. During the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong, the founder of the communist state, young Red Guards wearing red scarves and armbands touted the Little Red Book of his quotations and sang the anthem the “East Is Red” in praise of their leader. Today, official government directives are colloquially called “red top” documents and stamped with red-ink seals, while important events are denoted by red headlines in state and party newspapers. An entire class of political elites — including President Xi Jinping — are known as “hongerdai” — the “second red generation” of the party elite. With the ceremonial legislature voting earlier this month to scrap term limits for Xi, who has strived to preserve communist traditions and reassert the party’s leading place in public life, China will likely be red for many years to come. Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press.