Your long, thoughtful Asia Times piece on China’s internal struggle between Xi’s anti-corruption movement and the resistance in favor of the good ole dirty ways raises some interesting questions.
At first, I thought you were suggesting that some sort of amnesty for economic crimes would provide the needed kick in the pants to China’s economy, but then you rightly pointed out that it would be very difficult to draw the line on where, which and who the amnesty should apply. You seem to conclude that what China needs is a comprehensive set of rules of conduct for officials, entrepreneurs and business executives to operate by.
So, do you see the limited amnesty being granted in the name of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII as a trial balloon to granting broader amnesty later on?
Secondly, Xi Jinping has frequently emphasized that China needs to be ruled by law. Do you see any developments in the direction of defining and formulating the set of economic laws? From outside of China, we regularly read about another tiger “unseated from the horse,” but have not heard much about a set of official legal guidelines.