How China's Leaders Think

A fascinating look at China now and in the years to come, through the eyes of those at the helm

As China continues its rapid ascent, attention is turning to its leaders, who they are, and how they view the country's incredible transformation over the last thirty years. In How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Past, Current and Future Leaders, Revised, bestselling author Lawrence Kuhn goes directly to the source, talking with members of China's ruling party and examining recently declassified Party material to provide readers with an intimate look at China's leaders and leadership structure, visionary principles, and convulsive past, and tracing the nation's reform efforts.

Focusing on President Hu Jintao's philosophies and policies, the book looks to the next generation of China's leaders to ask the questions on everyone's lips. Who are China's future leaders? How do they view China's place in the world? Confronting China's leaders head on, Kuhn asks about the county's many problem, from economic imbalances to unsustainable development, to find out if there's a road map for change. Presenting the thoughts of key Chinese leaders on everything from media, military, banking, and healthcare to film, the Internet, science and technology, and much more, the book paints an intimate, candid portrayal of how China's leaders really think.

• Presents a fascinating insight into how China's leaders think about their country and where it's headed
• Asks the tough questions about China's need for reform
• Pulls together information from over 100 personal interviews as well as recently declassified Party documents

Taking readers closer to Party officials than ever before, How China's Leaders Think documents China's thirty-year struggle toward economic and social reform, and what's to come.

About the Author vii

Acknowledgments ix

Overview: How China’s Leaders Think xiii

1. Pride 3

2. Stability 14

3. Responsibility 19

4. Vision 27

5. Subjugation, Humiliation, Oppression 37

6. Reform’s Epic Struggle 51

7. Tiananmen and Thereafter 66

8. What’s a “Socialist Market Economy?” 73

9. How Communism Adopted Capital and Ownership 93

10. The Hidden Power of Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents” 105

11. The Driving Relevance of Hu Jintao’s “Scientific Perspective on Development” 120

12. Snapshots of Economic Reform 131

13. The Countryside is Core 143

14. Rebalancing Imbalances 152

15. How Reform Permeates All Society 161

16. Here Come the Lawyers 172

17. Facing Up to Corruption 180

18. Values and the New Social Contract 187

19. Provincial Pictures of Reform 203

20. Regional Dragonheads: Pudong (Shanghai) and Binhai (Tianjin) 216

21. What to Do with State-Owned Enterprises? 225

22. The Private Business Revolution 244

23. Banking Reform: The Largest Assets and Greatest Risks 253

24. Reforming Science & Technology with Sparks & Torches 266

25. Education: When Reform and Tradition Clash 276

26. Healthcare and Medical Reform: One Doctor’s Story 281

27. Media and Publishing Reform: Hidden in Plain Sight 290

28. How Telecommunications and the Internet Changed China 308

29. Diversity of Culture; Question of Censorship 320

30. How China’s Leaders Love Film 331

31. Why Religion Became Important 344

32. Foreign Policy Breaks Free 361

33. What does Military Reform Mean? 379

34. Telling China’s Story to the World 391

35. China’s Future Senior Leaders 407

36. China’s New Kind of Leaders 426

37. China’s Economic Future: How Far Can It Go? 447

38. Guangdong Visions 459

39. China’s Political Future: Is Reform Real? 473

40. China Threat or China Model? 491

41. China Reflections and Visions 507

Index 521

Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn is an international corporate strategist, investment banker, and public intellectual. For over 20 years he has worked with China’s senior leaders and advised the Chinese government. Dr. Kuhn also advises multinational companies on formulating and implementing China strategies, and Chinese companies in capital markets financings.

The author or editor of over 25 books, Dr. Kuhn is often in the media (e.g., CNBC, Euronews, BBC, BusinessWeek, Xinhua News Agency), discussing China’s politics and economy and the philosophies and policies of its senior leaders. He is senior international affairs commentator on Euronews, the leading television news network in Europe, and senior international commentator of China Central Television (CCTV News).

Dr. Kuhn works with China’s leaders on special projects. He is the author of The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin—the first biography of a living Chinese leader published in China and China’s best-selling book of 2005. He is the author of two event-marking books: China 30 Years: A Great Transformation Of Society, which commemorates China’s 30^th anniversary of reform and opening up and features President Hu Jintao; and How China’s Leaders Think (the first edition of this book), which commemorates China’s 60^th anniversary and focuses on China’s new (“Fifth”) generation of leaders. Dr. Kuhn has visited more than 40 cities in over 20 provinces and regions in China. He is senior advisor to CCTV and Xinhua.

Dr. Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, which produces Closer To Truth, the public television / PBS series on science and philosophy (which Dr. Kuhn hosts)—www.closertotruth.com. He has an A.B. in human biology (John Hopkins), a Ph.D. in anatomy / brain research (UCLA) and an S.M. in management (MIT).

China is an economic superpower competing in every arena of human endeavor. From trade and technology to culture, media and sports – China’s growing strengths have global implications. But who are China’s leaders, current and future, and what do they make of the country’s growing influence? What are China’s future leaders doing today? And how do they think about democracy, political reform and China’s place in the new world order?

How China’s Leaders Think focuses on the forces shaping China – the leaders and their philosophies; the government and it policies, and a nation of 1.3 billion people embracing change. With unique access to Communist Party officials, author Robert Lawrence Kuhn interviews over 100 of China’s leaders. He portrays President Hu Jintao, and looks to the next generation of China’s leaders, including Xi Jinping, likely China’s next president; Li Keqiang, likely China’s next premier; and “Rising Star” politburo members Li Yuanchao, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan, Bo Xilai and Wang Yang.

Kuhn speaks with China’s leaders in private companies, state-owned enterprises, banking, foreign affairs, military, agriculture, healthcare, religion, media, internet, film, literature, ideology and more to create an extraordinary portrait of China today. Is there a viable “China threat” or an emerging “China Model?” In confronting China’s leaders on China’s problems—economic imbalances, pollution, corruption, human rights, media censorship, religious tension, and ethnic conflicts, to name a few—Kuhn’s finds frank acknowledgement of the long road China must still travel in order to realize President Hu’s vision of a Harmonious Society.

The best way to know China—and the best way to do business with China—is to know what motives China’s leaders and what drives their policies. How China’s Leaders Think is, quite literally, an invaluable roadmap of how China’s leaders view the key issues of the day. Readers will not get closer to China’s leaders than this insightful book from Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

China’s Leaders

In the fall of 2012, when China’s Communist Party has its next National Party Congress (one is held every five years), senior leaders will be selected to replace those who have run the country for the past decade. In his book, How China’s Leaders Think, Kuhn offers background on Chinese officials we may hear more about in coming years. – Barron’s

Robert Kuhn offers outlooks on the mainland’s future from those shaping it… [His] access to the mainland’s political hierarchy is impressive. – South China Morning Post

How China’s Leaders Think draws on interviews with more than 100 Chinese leaders, providing insightful views on what China’s current and future leaders think about economy, media, diplomacy and more. – Xinhua News Agency

Kuhn’s latest work draws on his personal conversations with as many as 100 Chinese leaders. Kuhn delves into the mode of thinking of China’s leaders, revealing how they feel about the country’s presence in the world and how certain changes may impact others. – Global Times

This book reflects the personal visions and collective commitment of China’s senior leaders, including the next generation who will come to full power in 2012. Most readers will not get closer to China’s leaders than this. – China Daily

This is an important book that deserves a wide audience. It is important because it is the first attempt by a foreigner to explain the thinking of China’s current leadership across a range of subjects, and because Kuhn’s access to that leadership is unprecedented – and entirely unique – for any Westerner outside of diplomatic circles. – That’s Shanghai

Arguably one of the best surveys of China’s economic and social landscape during several decades of reform. – The Washington Times