Three cheers...

.... for the selection of Xi Jinping as China's president for the next ten years. From what is known of him it seems likely that he will be a more accessible and even flexible person for the rest of the world, the West especially, to deal with during a period that China's global influence will almost certainly increase. He faces formidable internal problems but it was encouraging to hear him acknowledge in his speech on Thursday “the people's desire for a better life”. He knows the people, having worked as a farmhand during Mao's cultural revolution.