105-year-old party elder sends blunt message to Xi

 

 

105-year-old party elder sends blunt message to Xi

 

At 105, Song Ping is the Chinese Communist Party's oldest retired official. Famous for once pressing former President Jiang Zemin to fully retire, Song recently made a rare public appearance.
 
In a video message for an event on Sept. 12, the centenarian said that the policy of reform and opening-up "has been the only path to the development and progress of contemporary China and the only path to the realization of the Chinese dream."
 
These are words that President Xi Jinping himself spoke nearly five years ago. Song cleverly used Xi's own words to make a difficult point.
 
Xi has since distanced himself from former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's economic policies, opting instead for his own signature initiatives such as "common prosperity" and "the prevention of the disorderly expansion of capital." But the economy has lost momentum under the new direction.
 
Song, in the same blunt and bold way in which he told Jiang that he had to go, is reminding Xi that Deng's path needs to be maintained.