China in 2004: Stability above All

Abstract

After the acute crisis of SARS the previous year, 2004 in China opened with no notable reappearance of the virus. The economy was the country's biggest problem, with leaders in Beijing attempting to curb overheating by imposing macroeconomic administrative restrictions. Jiang Zemin's retirement from the Central Military Commission allowed the new leadership of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to press forward with new policies of “scientific development.” These policies professed to be more balanced and more egalitarian; however, their implementation seemed to require renewed restrictions on dissent.