Xi Jinping power challenged openly

 

 Hubei issues a challenge to Xi Jinping's economic policies

A recent commentary by a local newspaper means for the country's politics. The Hubei Daily, the mouthpiece of the Hubei provincial committee of the Chinese Communist Party, last week ran a piece criticizing current economic policy. It argues that a small group of people are putting the brakes on "reform and opening up" -- a view stressed by former supreme leader Deng Xiaoping.

Since current leader Xi Jinping took the helm in 2012, opinions praising Mao Zedong -- the founding father of "a new China" -- have prevailed, eclipsing Deng's ideas. Ahead of the fifth plenary session of the Communist Party's 20th Central Committee in October, officials are believed to be engaged in a tug-of-war over economic policies, and the commentary is likely one side's attempt to sway public opinion.

The editorial ran just a few months after Guan Zhi'ou assumed the top post of Hubei province. With the 56-year-old party secretary regarded as a potential future leader, some pundits are wondering if the commentary points to the issue of generational change in the Communist Party.