China has entered 2014 on a wave of domestic optimism thanks to a commitment from its communist leaders to overhaul its flagging economic model and enhance its status on the global stage.
President Xi Jinping, after just over a year as leader of the world’s most populous nation, has ruthlessly and skilfully consolidated power and launched an ambitious economic reform agenda as part of his plan to realise the “Chinese dream” of a “great rejuvenation”.
His harsh yet selective crackdown on corruption and dissent, and his emphasis on enforcing Communist Party discipline, have left him looking like the most powerful leader in Chinese politics since Deng Xiaoping, who launched market-orientated reforms in the country in the early 1980s.