, Columnist
The Game Isn’t Over for China But It Is ‘Garbage Time’
Many Chinese see no hope for an economic recovery as long as the same leaders stick to the same policies that led to the slump.
Xi won’t share the ball.
Photographer: Tingshu Wang — Pool/Getty Images AsiaPac
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It is hard to recall a more striking disconnect between the Chinese people and their modern leaders. When President Xi Jinping marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, he will hail a thriving nation destined to become a prosperous superpower by its centennial in 2049.
Ordinary Chinese, on the other hand, see their country entering quite a different period, captured in a recently coined phrase — “the garbage time of history.”