Nothing that Mao would recognise, Prof Karl says. Xi's ruthless and dramatic consolidation of power has caused many to liken him to Mao. But Mao's destructiveness was rooted in his desire to build a socialist utopia. What does Xi want to build? In 2007 Bo was sent to run Chongqing, a vast city that straddles the Yangtze River in the mountains of southwest China. It was infamous then for organised crime.
irannews.ru "They just left a mess. Mess and pain," says Alyona. "When I came here for the first time after liberation, I just stood here and cried. It's really hard." Earlier this year, a Chinese friend spent 83 days alone, locked in a Shanghai hotel room. By the time I returned in 1998 the whole country had taken to heart Deng's invocation "to get rich is glorious". That year the Communist Party decreed China's state-owned housing stock be sold off, lock, stock and barrel. Swathes of Beijing's historic grey-brick courtyards were being demolished and replaced with glass and steel. "If you're going to compare two people, it has to reveal something. It's like comparing Putin to Stalin or Liz Truss to Margaret Thatcher."