The April issue of The Letter – Asia Pacific is dedicated to China, and I wanted to revisit some of the issues related to the world’s second-largest economy that are essential for its economic and political success.

First of all, on the political scene, new Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping completed his first 100 days in power at the end of February. Needless to say, once-in-a-decade change at the top of Chinese society is quite important for economic and social stability. Although it is too early to offer any judgments on a leader who has been in power only slightly more than three months, we can see some signs of things to come from his speeches and the early actions he has taken since assuming power. The image he projected during his tour of southern China, where the economic reforms were started by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, were quite different from earlier leaders. Xi was seen visiting villages, chatting with farmers and ordinary folks