Lede:
As the Chinese Communist Party sets its course for the next decade at its Third Plenum, the key question remains open. Will President Xi turn into another deep reformer like Deng Xiaoping or into a failed and discarded reformer like Mikhail Gorbachev? We repost a blog by Elizabeth Pond that last addressed this issue on August 27.
By Elizabeth Pond
Will Chinese President Xi Jinping be another Deng Xiaoping? Or, as he fears, might he become another Mikhail Gorbachev? The answer may lie as much with China's nouveau middle class as with the fallout from the sensational trial of deposed Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai.
