Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower

by Henry M. Paulson Jr.

I don’t know what Xi’s long-term agenda may be, but I can tell you that it doesn’t involve Western-style multiparty electoral democracy. His chief political concern is to maintain the primacy and power of the Communist Party by cleansing, strengthening, and revitalizing it. Those hoping for signs of Western-style democratic initiatives are certain to be disappointed. “The very essence of ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. And this makes China quite different from the United States and other countries that believe that we should have a multiparty system,” Xi told me in July 2014. “Because we have one-party rule, we need to be a good party. So we have three tasks: self-improvement, self-purification, and self-regulation.”