There is a lot of hope that Xi will bring long-delayed economic and political reforms needed to make China a real knowledge economy. Chinese authorities are so sensitive to these stories because they are the tip of an iceberg - an increasingly corrupt system of interlocking ties between the Communist Party and state-owned banks, industries and monopolies, which allow certain senior officials, their families and "princelings" to become hugely wealthy. Last week, the official Xinhua news agency reported that authorities in the city of Macheng agreed to invest $1.4 million in new school equipment after photos of students and their parents carrying their own desks and chairs to school, along with their books, sparked an outcry on the Internet. ? Hu suggested that it would be good if the people of Hong Kong learned more about the mainland, so Hong Kong authorities recently announced that they were imposing compulsory "moral and national education" lessons in primary and secondary schools. High school students from Hong Kong, which enjoys more freedom than the mainland as part of the 1997 handover from Britain, organized a protest against Beijing's "brainwashing" that quickly spread to parent groups and universities. According to Agence France-Presse, Deng argued that Hu and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao "had created more problems than achievements' during their 10 years in power. ?" The article highlighted 10 problems facing China that it said were caused by the lack of political reform and had the potential to cause public discontent, including stalled economic restructuring, income disparity and pollution.
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