This weekend, the three hundred most powerful leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, the Central Committee, met to discuss the economic and political future of the People’s Republic of China. International media outlets ran breathless articles about the prospects for political reform in the wake of imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize and vibrant debate among Beijing intellectuals and retired officials about the merits of political reform. There is no official indication that the meeting veered from a well-vetted script focused on the next five-year plan, which begins in 2011, and the continued grooming of the “fifth generation” of leaders who will take over in late 2012.
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