The relationship with the U.S. has been an important factor for China’s success in the last 40 years in its reform and opening-up effort to integrate into the global system.

In 2018, the 40th anniversary of "reform & opening," how party leaders tell the story of China's transition over the past 40 years will shape future policy steps, both at home and abroad.

A solution to local government debt is strengthening the central bank’s supervision over it.

The China model could lead to more varied views on what works and doesn’t in economic development.

Many observers note that President Xi Jinping’s opening speech at the 19th National Congress did not spell out major new economic reform initiatives. Nonetheless, economic reform has neither stalled nor backtracked in the past five years, and is even less likely to do so if Xi Jinping successfully consolidates his power with the 19th Congress.

Xi Jinping’s administration has emphasized the promotion of leaders who have worked in China’s poorest and most remote provinces, or “hardship” regions. But not all emerging heavyweights with experience in hardship regions are Xi Jinping’s protégés. In fact, some have strong personal ties to Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) and Li Keqiang (李克强).

Though the Chinese leadership has labored over the past three decades to instill rules and norms into its elite selection process, concerns have persisted over the effectiveness and durability of these nascent institutional mechanisms. What institutional limitations and political barriers stand in the way? The selection of ethnic minority leaders provides a good case study that sheds valuable light on these questions.

Can business leaders become central players in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership? The recent rise of provincial chiefs (governors and provincial party secretaries) who have experience as top commanders of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) suggests that these individuals will play a more pronounced role in Chinese politics in the years ahead.

With commitments to clean energy and combatting climate change wavering under the new US administration, leadership in renewable energy is quietly shifting away from the United States across the Pacific, where China is rapidly building its dominance.

Now is the time, especially given the Trump Administration’s stance on environment, for China to assume the leadership role with more assertiveness and confidence, be more proactive in working with other nations, and coordinate global actions to curb pollution.