Researchers at Nankai University argue that increasing the proportion of China’s population in the middle class will have knock-on effects for social stability, productivity growth, and consumer demand. As a result, they argue, continuing to expand this demographic will be “an important task for China going forward in the new stage of development.” The authors recommend Beijing focus on raising income levels of rural residents through rural revitalization, promoting urbanization, and “gradually transition[ing] from an urban development orientation to a strategic focus that prioritizes rural revitalization and development.”

A prominent scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences argues that addressing barriers to social mobility is important to curb rising income inequality in China and avoid the middle income trap. He promotes hukou reform as a potential remedy, and advocates for “changing the method where the supply of public goods treat[s] people differently based on household registration status.”

Wang Wen, a distinguished scholar from Renmin University argues that while internal and particularly external risks to China’s development have undoubtedly grown, the “period of strategic opportunity” heralded formally by Jiang Zemin in 2002 endures. In Wang’s view, Chinese leadership must internalize this belief and proactively communicate it publicly, as “targeted encouragement for the future” that in turn maintains “medium-to-high growth in all fields of society.”

Emphasis added throughout text by editors.

Researchers at the PLA’s National University of Defense Technology examine the U.S. strategy of deterrence by denial against China since 2017, tracing developments across the Trump and Biden administrations and assessing likely impacts on China’s efforts to shape its regional security environment. The authors argue that while these strategies have “achieved some of the expected effects,” they will be constrained abroad by the security interests of regional U.S. partners and allies and domestically through disagreement among U.S. political parties and U.S. military branches about how to approach denial capability building.

Emphasis added throughout text by editors.

This piece summarizes a speech Xi Jinping gave on what he sees as the proper role of journalism when he was the Secretary of the Ningde Prefecture Party Committee in 1989. In the speech, Xi encourages Party organizations at all levels to strengthen their leadership over journalism, since the media can facilitate the Party and socialist cause by “publiciz[ing] achievements confidently” and serving a “supervision function” to expose corruption.

In this fascinating 1989 interview Xi Jinping gave on economic development during his tenure as Party Secretary of Ningde (in the interview referred to as Mindong), Xi argues that “whether the Party and government organs are kept clear or not is related to the survival of the Party,” the “support of people’s hearts,” and the “fate of the socialist economy.”

In this 1997 article published in an education-focused journal, Xi Jinping proudly recounts the adverse conditions and “grassroots” experiences of his early life despite being the son of a high-ranking Party cadre, and argues that his peers should not “have a sense of superiority” but rather be self-reliant.

In this 1993 interview with Xi Jinping, then serving as Secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee, he argues that a leader capable of leading China to modernization and prosperity should be “courageous and knowledgeable,” adhere to “firm beliefs,” be in touch with the “will of the masses,” and hold a “profound understanding of the…policies of the central and provincial party committees.”

One of China’s most well-known scholars of American studies, Da Wei, argues that the U.S. and China need to reach a new strategic understanding about Taiwan to avoid a larger crisis. However, he suggests that this has become more difficult “because some of the long-term fundamentals underlying the Taiwan issue have changed,” including the deterioration in U.S.-China relations, the narrowing power gap between the U.S. and China, and the growing power gap across the Taiwan Strait.

A scholar of Taiwan and cross-Strait issues at Xiamen University lays out the “root causes” of the Taiwan Strait crises and argues that in the past 30 years, the PRC has improved its crisis management response. He advises Chinese leadership to pursue crisis management in the Taiwan Strat by continuing to cut Taiwan off from international institutions, arms sales, and diplomatic recognition and by using targeted escalation strategically to clarify China’s red lines to the international community.