Current Event #2

article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-china-will-transition-bring-real-change/2012/02/10/gIQABrkd6Q_story.html

"In China, will transition bring real change?"

This article detailed speculation about probable change in China's leadership in the near future - Vice President Xi Jinping is expected to take over in November and vice premier Li Keqiang is expected to become the new Prime Minister. While the impact that new leadership could have on China's foreign policy relations with the United States is important, even more pressing is the impact it could have on social tensions within China. The article specifically mentions subjects such as protests over land rights (namely, China's attempts to develop a property tax system), worker strikes, and ethnic unrest in the Tibetan region as serious concerns. Some see this transition of leadership to be an opportunity to respond to cries from the Chinese people for greater political and social freedoms, but others point out that the only change, if any, will be to further repress the "grass-roots society".
As press coverage from China is limited, the article cites suspicions that Jinping and Keqiang have been "selected" as the new leadership simply on the fact that their pictures and specific news stories have been specifically and systematically inserted into the Chinese press. It is supposedly a way to acclimate the public to the idea of their leadership and bring them to the forefront of politics. The fact that this controlled release is the only method through which citizens can learn about their leadership only serves to reinforce the fact that change and more freedom are far from priorities for a government that is conducted completely behind closed doors.