Cheng Li - Mentions and Appearances

The leadership is in agreement. They are all very angry [with the proposed deal]. The domestic environment is changing for them. They can lose the deal, but they can’t be seen as too soft on the U.S.

How could the system let someone like…[Bo Xilai] emerge? As people find corruption is out of control, the very legitimacy of China’s Communist Party is in jeopardy.

If this [the firing of Bo Xilai] didn't happen, there could have been a bigger crisis. Bo Xilai may have used the military for his purpose. He may have turned the system upside down in a radical way. He may have launched a very nationalistic movement.

Historically, you haven’t seen the [Chinese] public use social media to comment on leaders… [But now] people are talking about politics.

The growing political transparency and open ideological disputes are healthy developments in China’s governance. Despite the fact that it is still a one-party Leninist state, the CCP leadership is by no means a monolithic group whose members all share the same ideology and policy preferences, and it is also divided along factional, coalitional, and regional lines. But one can also assume that internal ideological disagreements and political infighting in the top leadership may become too divisive to reconcile, making the decision-making process lengthier and more complicated, and perhaps even resulting in deadlock.

China’s domestic situation is very bad. The reality is that the Chinese economy is in a very, very difficult situation.

Retired…leaders [in China] apparently want to have more say on the country’s economic policy, political succession, and foreign relations.

Economic growth is increasingly not enough. The Chinese people are saying that their government…should [also] deliver accountability.

The fact that [Xi Jinping] has got the job shows that the political establishment wants to have the succession go as smoothly as possible.