Academics, journalists and other free-thinking intellectuals have taken the bold step of calling for more freedom of expression and less Internet censorship. Others want to resuscitate long-stalled political reform. For the first time since Xi Jinping took power in late 2012, the official media have also run articles that seem to challenge the supremacy of the President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In the Chinese tradition, open expressions of dissent usually occur when major factions of the party are engaged in a power struggle. Given the overall conservative nature of the leadership, however, it is unlikely that a new round of what late patriarch Deng Xiaoping called “thought liberation” is in the offing.[Source]
