Xi with nobody to tell him he is stupid

  

Xi opens Beidaihe with no elders but plenty of challenges

China's summer political season has arrived. Chinese Communist Party leaders, past and present, have gathered at the seaside resort town of Beidaihe in Hebei province for their annual, but informal and secretive, discussions on the state of the nation.
 
In his 11 years in power, this is the first time that President Xi Jinping will not have to face the most powerful of the party elders. Former President Jiang Zemin has died and Xi's immediate predecessor, Hu Jintao, has seldom been seen after being dramatically removed from his seat at the party's national congress last October.
 
The lack of checks and balances is convenient for Xi, but is it good for China? In China today, the only way to correct problems with key policies is for Xi himself to recognize the problems and order a change. But that would be tantamount to admitting his own mistakes -- an unattractive option.