Interview: Chinese leadership to be more responsive in decision-making: German scholar

The world could expect the Chinese leadership to be more responsive and resolute in decision-making after the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has designated President Xi Jinping as the core of the party, according to a well-known German scholar.

Gu Xuewu, director of the Center for Global Studies at Bonn University, made the observation in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua on the latest plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee which concluded on Oct. 27.

By endorsing Xi as the party's core, the CPC could effectively enhance its capability to make difficult decisions and be more responsive to global geopolitical challenges, economic issues as well as crisis situations both at home and abroad, Gu said.

"The Chinese people as well as governments in countries around the world would find this out in the next few years to come," he said.

Gu described the plenum as being "a milestone" in the history of the CPC which was founded in 1921 and has been the ruling party in China since 1949.

"My general impression is that by holding the plenum, the CPC led by Xi is intended to show the Chinese people and the world a ruling party devoted to self-renewal, self-growth and self-improvement," the German scholar said.

What has come out of the plenum could be of far-reaching significance for the party itself and the Chinese people as well, he said.

Gu believed the new guidelines and regulations on intra-party life adopted at the plenum were designed mainly to prevent party members from becoming corrupt, especially those holding high-ranking positions.

The approval of the new guidelines and regulations is a manifestation of the resolution of the party leadership with Xi at the core that widespread corruption would never be allowed within the ruling party, he said.

The move to adopt the guidelines and regulations could not be more timely, he noted, saying the new measures could be valuable assets for the CPC's ongoing efforts to combat corruption.

Gu believed that fighting corruption is also essential for China to avoid the so-called middle-income trap. China has become a middle-income developing country thanks to decades of rapid economic growth, .

The middle-income trap is the situation in which a country's growth slows or even gets stuck after reaching middle income levels, usually with per capita GDP hovering around 10,000 U.S. dollars.

For a middle-income country to become a high-income economy, according to Gu, two main factors count a lot: enhancing competitiveness through innovation and industrial upgrading and reining in corruption to keep production costs low.

Enhancing competitiveness through innovation and industrial upgrading alone is not sufficient for a middle-income economy like China to escape the middle-income trap, he said.

The endeavor also needs the escort of a clean or honest government, Gu said.

By fighting corruption, a ruling party could ensure a sustainable leadership that is crucial for efforts to avoid the middle-income trap, he noted. Endi