Casual observers of the proceedings of the annual National People’s Congress (NPC) may be tempted to dismiss them as a ritualistic exercise with little impact on the lives of the Chinese people. Such a conclusion, while not totally groundless, nevertheless misses an important public policy debate revealed during this year’s NPC session – reforming China’s troubled retirement system. The challenge confronting Beijing is simply the lack of money to fund the explosive growth of pension benefits.

In Western media, the National People's Congress -- China's legislative body which just ended its annual three week session -- is perfunctorily conjoined with the phrase "rubber stamp." This characterization is less and less true every year and does a disservice to understanding the most significant historic shift taking place in China today: the long march toward "rule according to law" from administrative fiat.

Discussion of whether or not China will lead the world through a “third industrial revolution” ignores the China’s excess supply of low quality products, polluted air and water, and an information sector that isn’t completely integrated with manufacturing. China still has a ways to go in industrializing while facing changing international circumstances.

Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, is the Chinese leader’s book on proper leadership in China, with a heavy focus on ousting corruption, a direct threat to the legitimacy of the party. While the party cracks down, it also has made it more difficulty for anonymous web users to expose party privilege abuse on micro-blogs, begging the question of whether this book favors slogan over good governance.

The anti-corruption drive -- the longest and most systematic in Chinese history -- is changing the way public officials do business. Any sensible official will now think twice before accepting a bribe.

China’s “new normal” economic development is necessary to achieve more valuable GDP growth at a more reasonable speed and sustainability. Key components of these reforms will be decreased growth, higher-level manufacturing, narrowing of rural and urban wealth, capital exports, a consumer middle-class, and new small businesses.

Xi has said on multiple occasions that the next steps of China’s reforms will be tough. But the decisiveness and resolution he has displayed in handling corrupt officials such as Zhou have won him public confidence.

As the Chinese government prepares to put the disgraced former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang on trial in 2015, the question on the minds of most observers is whether the courtroom proceedings against Zhou will adhere to both Chinese criminal procedures and the well-established legal principle of fairness.

The anti-corruption declaration signed by APEC members at the just-concluded Beijing meeting was an important moment, and has been a focus of Wang Qishan, Xi Jinping’s anti-graft front-man. Part of his focus, and a continual challenge the party, is leadership, self-discipline, and the institutionalization of anti-corruption mechanisms.