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Robert Lawrence Kuhn
Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual, international corporate strategist and investment banker, and a China political/economics commentator featured on the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg. For more than 25 years, he has worked with China’s leaders. He has published over 30 books, including How China’s Leaders Think (featuring President Xi Jinping), and The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin. He is the host of Closer to China with R.L.Kuhn on CCTV News.
He was an unexpected choice as leader, and not especially popular among elites and intellectuals right after stepping down. But as more learn of his professional leadership and intellectual curiosity, Jiang is winning fans
To appreciate the deep message of the sixth plenum, we should look to party history. In Mao’s era, China ‘stood up’. In Deng’s era, China ‘became rich’. This plenum sets the stage for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, with Xi in charge.
Experience has taught Chinese leaders not to take statements made about China during US elections too seriously. However, this time, the window of opportunity to reset relations after the elections will be narrower and the differences wider.
The US-China rivalry only feeds the pandemic when global cooperation is needed. This is where China’s vision of a shared future or destiny for humanity can be useful, provided it can be elevated above suspicions of a Beijing power grab.
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Confidence in Beijing’s pledge to end the epidemic is rooted in the country’s record in mass mobilisation to achieve objectives, including poverty alleviation. The party leadership has also shown a willingness to change and correct mistakes, as seen in its admission of shortcomings in containment efforts so far.
The Chinese president’s commitment to globalisation, and understanding that China’s credibility is at stake, will ensure the proposed law will indeed curb predatory practices aimed at foreign businesses and level the playing field for them.
President Xi and President Trump have too much invested in the trade dispute personally to let the talks fail
The US must accept China’s need to support the technological development, while China should work with US policymakers who oppose tariffs but want the country to further open its markets and protect intellectual property rights.
The dispute over ZTE and the related issues of trade and technology are worrying for the more fundamental problem they point to: misunderstanding on both sides of the other’s motives.
International media have fixated on the end of term limits and missed the point; the pivotal moments in Xi Jinping’s rise to unparallelled power happened several months ago, and there’s a reason the party supports him.
The public uproar over two recent, unrelated incidents – alleged child abuse at a kindergarten and the eviction of migrant workers in Beijing – highlights how the Chinese leader was right in diagnosing society’s fundamental problem today
The caller, a Chinese official I respect, asked that I black out October 8. Why, he wouldn't yet say. The project was an unprecedented, 500-plus page book, called Xi Jinping: The Governance of China.
In early 2012, in the run-up to the 18th Communist Party congress, I was asked to co-produce, host and write - for international audiences - a TV documentary series celebrating the achievements of China's then retiring leaders.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to the Middle East and North Africa - Palestine, Israel, Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia - is noteworthy on several levels. It recognises the importance of the region for China's energy security and it reflects the country's growing participation in world affairs.
The Communist Party's third plenum is history - figuratively in that the crucial conclave has concluded and we have the results, and literally in that the transformative vision is truly historic.
I have a dream that, in a future Syria-like crisis, the US and China will be arm-in-arm allies, working together to convince others of the high-minded rectitude of their joint initiative to maintain peace and enhance prosperity. It is a dream, in truth, that would benefit China and the world - yet it is a dream, in reality, that China-watchers would dismiss as a "pipe dream". Pessimism prevails, which is why China-US disputations over Syria are worth examining.
