China Leader Xi Jinping Is Raring to Go

Barely a month after becoming party secretary, Xi Jinping has been busy showing who’s in charge. He has stepped up a crackdown on corruption, ordered officials to cut down on pomp and ceremony, called for improved relations with the rest of the world, and pushed for a stronger military. On his first official trip outside Beijing, Xi, who should assume the presidency in March, visited the freewheeling province of Guangdong, where he met with entrepreneurs and called for speedier economic reform. There he evoked the vision of paramount leader Deng Xiao-ping, who launched China’s opening to the world some 30 years ago and who traveled to Guangdong in 1992 to energize reforms.

After a decade of relative stasis under outgoing leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, many China watchers are surprised and encouraged by Xi’s boldness. “For Xi to do so much so quickly is quite unprecedented. In the one-party system everyone is supposed to give the feeling that all is continuity and passing the baton. It is almost impolite to make changes too quickly,” says Robert Lawrence Kuhn, author of How China’s Leaders Think.