Just three weeks after taking over as his country's top leader, Xi Jinping is trying to give Chinese communism a more common touch.
Out are the tedious discourses laden with Marxist-Leninist cliches and clunky references to "Deng Xiaoping thought" and "the Three Represents." In are short, punchy statements marked by plain language and an informal style.
Xi signaled the change at a news conference Nov. 15, his first as the Communist Party's general secretary, when his brief prepared remarks stood in sharp contrast to the lengthy, theory-heavy statement of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, when he took the top job in 2002. Among the differences: Xi introduced his fellow Standing Committee members as "my colleagues," whereas Hu used the old revolutionary term "comrades."