How Serious Is Xi About Tackling Corruption?

Xi Jinping's overriding aim is the preservation of Communist party rule in China, as he made clear in speeches shortly after his elevation to be China's senior leader. Like his predecessors, he is obsessed with the Gorbachev phenomenon and doesn't want to be remembered in history as the Gorbachev of China. What his aim also means is that he cannot have a thorough-going anti-corruption drive that could target his senior colleagues and their cronies, says historian and sinologist Roderick MacFarquhar. Read more