Reform set to accelerate as vested resistance is further purged

China should accelerate its reforms, says Xi Jinping. This statement comes as more evidence emerges of the party chief's purge of vested interests, especially provincial officials linked to former paramount leader Jiang Zemin's top henchmen, i.e. the disgraced ex-security czar Zhou Yongkang.

The removal of Xinjiang party boss Zhang Chunxian in particular is a powerful confirmation that whatever nascent political opposition to Xi within the CPC may have flared up last spring has been crushed. Zhang famously defied Xi at the National People's Congress (NPC) in March, refusing to endorse the latter as the "core" of the new communist leadership - just days after underlings within his Xinjiang administration ill-advisedly reposted an "open letter" from disgruntled party members urging Xi's resignation which first appeared on a dissident website in America.

With Xi's own loyalists increasingly staffing both the central and provincial party posts, it's just a matter of time until residual resistance to his reforms in the day-to-day execution of policy is eliminated. Though that would still take a while, Xi has skillfully outmaneuvered his enemies in what's probably their last-ditch effort to block him. From here on out, it's likely to be a simple matter of taking out the trash.

As a reflection of his increased confidence and security in his unassailable position, we're likely to hear more bold pronouncements from Xi urging reforms to hurry up over the coming year-plus until the 19th Party Congress (November 2017). This will bolster global confidence in China's transition, especially as Xi is likely to emphasize microeconomic market-oriented liberalizations, i.e. rural land rights and intellectual property protection as mentioned in the above statement. And ironically, the more successful Xi is in applying his hard political capital to these measures, the more it strengthens the credibility of his only remaining potential rival, reformist premier Li Keqiang. In this way, the Xi-Li duo may reach a much-needed symbiotic equilibrium over its still probable second term (2018-2023).

All in all, the last year of Xi's first term at the party's helm isn't shaping up to be too shabby. And at a time when even a slowing China is increasingly recognized as the main anchor of global growth, the world will be thankful for it.