Mastering China’s long game

 

掌握中国的长期运作

 

BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) — In 1985, the eastern Chinese city of Xiamen was a study in contrasts.

1985年，中国的东部城市厦门，正是一部作为对比研究的好教材。

 

A newly designated Special Economic Zone, it buzzed with the anxious energy of a nation just cracking open its doors to the world. Yet, it was a provincial backwater, a port city where the entirety of its international trade aspirations rested on the shoulders of just two aging gantry cranes.

 

Facing a chorus of competing advice — some urging the blind imitation of Singapore’s development model, others paralyzed by pessimism — the city’s new vice mayor, 32-year-old Xi Jinping, resisted the temptation of easy answers and short-term fixes.

 

It was his first posting in a coastal region and first time managing the complex machinery of a modernizing city. Rather than improvising, he called for a blueprint. Not a makeshift plan designed simply for his term of office, but a generational strategic vision stretching 15 years, to the dawn of 21st century — the year 2000.