Western analysts have been scratching their heads trying to figure out if China's new leader, Xi Jinping, can properly be labeled a "reformer."
His new policies promise to end labor camps, ease the one-child policy and migrant-residency requirement in cities, grant property rights to farmers, and open up many new areas to a "decisive" role for the market.
At the same time, he has strengthened the grip of the Communist Party, accumulated more power at the center, asserted ideological orthodoxy and clamped down on raucous bloggers.