U.S. President Barack Obama recently commented on Chinese president Xi Jinping, saying that he was impressed by Xi’s quick consolidation of power. Obama also referred to Xi as the strongest leader in China since Deng Xiaoping. In making this comment, Obama probably was also thinking about his own position within the U.S. political structure, particularly after his Democratic Party suffered a landslide loss in the midterm elections, thus rendering him a lame duck president before his term ends in 2016. Was Obama even a bit jealous of Xi’s strong power position? We do not know, but it would be interesting to compare the effectiveness of the two leaders and ponder the implications thereof for Sino-U.S. competition at the global level in coming years.
If we look at what the two leaders have accomplished so far, then the clear winner is Xi Jinping. In a short span of two years, Xi Jinping has arguably accomplished far more than what Obama has accomplished in his six-year term. While Obama’s main achievements since 2009 have been limited to his health care reform, Xi’s achievements have included the anti-corruption campaign, hukou reform, legal reforms, higher-education reform and so on, pretty much covering all important areas in China.
So why this huge contrast between the two national leaders? There could be two reasons why Xi is more effective than Obama is.
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