Explaining the Dramatic Policy Changes in Xi Jinping’s China: Agency, Structure and Conjuncture

Should we regard the Xi Jinping and Hu–Wen eras as two completely different and separate periods? It is true that Xi Jinping has changed many of the norms of the Hu–Wen era, but the roots of many of his ‘reforms’ may have originated from some problems during the Hu–Wen era. I believe that agency and structure are two important aspects of our analysis of the Chinese Communist Party’s dramatic policy changes during the Xi era. Furthermore, this study argues that the Hu–Wen and Xi eras closely resemble a concept that Fernand Braudel calls conjunctures: these two periods are best understood as a unified whole and, therefore, should be examined simultaneously.