In this New York Times article we see the story of several employees that have been stranded in china and haven’t been allowed to leave since their billionaire boss disappeared. Xiao Jianhua was abducted by the police from his apartment at the four seasons hotel. He is believed to have been taken back to the mainland. When one of his employees attempted to leave country soon after, he was detained at the airport pending investigation of his bosses dealings. Mr. Xiao has apparently been abducted due to the fact that he has as much power as he has and 5 of the 7 members of the Politburo Standing Committee are up for election. This just goes to show that not even the economic elite, one of the wealthiest men in the country, isnt safe from the CCCP.

In this New York Times article, we find out that China has been officially declared to not be a market economy. This evidently leaves them without some of the economic concessions that come with being declared as such. This has evidently been in response to the Chinese governments monopoly on much of the economy, including their excess of steel and the 2000 year old monopoly on salt. These days the communist party has systematically infiltrated and now controls the market. They are a what the new York times calls, “a party-corporate conglomerate.”

In this post, David Shambaugh alleges that the Chinese communist system is facing problems of magnificent proportions. He believes that Chinese head of state Xi Jinping is cracking down too hard on the people and his political opponents. He believes that there are five reasons why the current situation is indicative of the crackup in China. One, the Chinese elites are investing as much as possible in foreign markets and diversifying as much as possible. Two, Xi JIngping is cracking down on political dissent much more than those before him. Three, many of the loyalists are at this point just pretending to go along with the regime. As if too don’t really believe in it any more. Fourth, the state is about as corrupt as they come. Finally, their economy may seem like it is booming, however on the inside it is sputtering to a stalemate.

In this story of the mayor of a has been Chinese city we see the struggle that one man faces when trying to restore the cultural spirit of his city. He is plagued at every turn by corrupt party officials, complaining towns folk and lazy, cheap contractors. He is one of the hardest working men I have ever seen, however his dreams of fixing the city are cut short when he is reminded of his ties to the party when they call him to another city, it’s at that point that the citizens of the city realize that theyd rather have Geng as a mayor because, while he is making changes he is at least being proactive.

In this article, the author talks about how many members of the local government were blamed when the famine hit the peasantry because of the Mao’s Great Leap Forward program. The majority of the people, especially in the local governments were not happy with the way their efforts were not rewarded and the fact that their extra work served to only drive their economy into the ground. This was the largest blight on Mao’s record and no matter how it was spun and what his previous record was, he was still judged by all for nearly running his country into the ground.