Autocracy with Chinese Characteristics: Beijing's Behind-the-Scenes Reforms

<span>Yuen Yuen Ang argues that China's sustained economic growth under single-party rule is not evidence that autocracy rivals democracy, nor a temporary aberration before inevitable democratization. Rather, since Deng Xiaoping's reforms beginning in 1978, the Chinese Communist Party has introduced democratic </span><em>characteristics</em><span>—accountability, competition, and partial limits on power—into its bureaucratic apparatus without relinquishing political control. Through reforms such as performance-based cadre evaluation systems, term limits for elite officials, and internal profit-sharing mechanisms for rank-and-file public employees, the CCP transformed a rigid Leninist bureaucracy into an adaptive, growth-oriented machine. However, Ang contends that this strategy of substituting bureaucratic reform for genuine political liberalization is approaching its limits: rising citizen demands, Xi Jinping's consolidation of personal power, and the innovation requirements of a middle-income economy are straining a system that cannot indefinitely defer meaningful political reform.</span>