This refers to Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng's article "Behind China's Third Plenum" (November 16). The Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has perhaps come at the right time to. A command economy such as China, predicated on the power of the proletariat, did reach higher base growth sooner than normal democratic regimes. But it needs the contribution of individual entrepreneurship to achieve a sustained levels of progress from now on. And that comes with a price - greater personal freedom. The USSR, on a similar path earlier, could not act in time, and party oligarchs under the hubris of totalitarian power not only ruined the economy but dismembered the vast republic. China clearly, is keen to learn from history. It could manage to keep the nation together by veering away from blind growth. But political and economic inclusiveness does not come easy.
R Narayanan Ghaziabad
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