Asia's Strongmen Aren't Strong Enough

Across Asia, the world has supposedly been witnessing the return of the strongman. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been grasping more and more control in his own hands since claiming power in 2012. Two years later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and President Joko Widodo (known as “Jokowi”) in Indonesia won office by selling themselves as forceful economic and political reformers. All three were heralded as the firm hands these giant developing nations needed to rejuvenate their promising but troubled economies.

Yet here we are, at the start of 2017, still waiting. Jokowi’s lackluster reform program has produced equally lackluster growth. Xi’s much-hyped pro-market manifesto, approved in 2013, has gone almost nowhere, leaving China to limp along on ever-greater infusions of debt. While India is the best performing of the bunch, Modi has remained reluctant to press ahead on key changes that could lift growth even higher.