The world is once again intent on China. Only this time it is seeking to understand not the country’s economic but its political trajectory – and whether its three decades of reform might be derailed. No one with experience of watching the annual sessions of the “rubber-stamp” legislature in Beijing would have expected it to end in such drama, with a blast from Wen Jiabao, the departing premier, that without political reform China could face a repeat of the Cultural Revolution – and then yesterday the purging of Bo Xilai, the maverick regional politician.
全世界的目光再一次聚焦中國。不過，這次他們試圖理解的並不是這個國家的經濟曲線，而是它的政治軌道：歷經三十年的中國改革是否可能偏離正常的軌跡？全國人大多被外界看做是一枚「橡皮圖章」。它的觀察者未曾預料今年的人代會最終以一場戲劇而落幕——一年後將卸任的中國總理溫家寶發表了一番令人震驚的言論。他指出，沒有政治體制的改革，文化大革命這樣的歷史悲劇還有可能重新發生；次日，薄熙來這位特立獨行的中國地方領導人被免去重慶市委書記一職。