LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
Xi was ranked among the 100 most influential figures of 2012 by Time Magazine, along with Barack Obama, Jeremy Lin of the Houston Rockets and Argentina soccer star Messi.
The ranking acknowledges that Xi enjoys great influence. However, he also faces huge challenges as China's new leader.
One of his biggest challenges is how to maintain the country's economic winning streak of more than 30 years.
Xi seems to agree.
When speaking with reporters at noon, he said that the responsibility of the leadership lies in "taking the relay baton passed on to us by history and making continued efforts to achieve the great renewal of the Chinese nation."
Xi has already been praised for his straightforward approach.
"Xi Jinping's speech was refreshingly brief and free of jargon," tweeted Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Beijing bureau chief.
The situation Xi is inheriting from Hu Jintao has many strengths, including the country's strong manufacturing capability, its huge trade surplus and a growing national eagerness to revitalize the age-old country that "has endured untold hardship and suffering in modern times."
However, the country's expanding middle class is calling for China's version of the "American Dream." As Xi put it, all the people are craving "better education, more stable jobs, higher salaries, better social welfare, better medical and health care, improved housing conditions and a better environment."
"The objective is clear .Now we're waiting for his actions," "zhongguominjian" posted on Weibo.
Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business at Indiana University in the U.S., described to Xinhua the challenges he thinks China's leadership is facing. "The leadership will have to reform the education system to genuinely promote creativity and innovation, reduce the privileges of state-owned enterprises, reduce the gap between rich and poor, aggressively take on corruption, and vastly expand the transparency of the political system," he said.
Kennedy also said the leadership must manage relations with the U.S., which feels growing uneasiness over China's economic growth, as it intensifies its political and military presence in Asia.
Xi, in his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on May 3, said the two major powers should not only have determination and confidence, "but also the patience and wisdom of 'crossing a river by feeling the stones.'"
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