China will have a major leadership change soon when the current leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, bow out. In the post-Mao era, Chinese leadership change and power transition have become institutionalized and more predictable. That's until the somewhat unexpected Bo Xilai affair. Although the sacking of the Chongqing leader -- in the wake of a murder investigation that implicated him and his wife -- revealed the startling degree of widespread corruption and abuse of power among high-ranking leaders, it also exposed the intense struggle among various ideologies of China's leaders and intellectual elites. This is somewhat unprecedented. After three decades of reforms, China's social economic landscape has been transformed. Short-term and long-term problems and challenges abound. While addressing such problems as inflation, the asset bubble, corruption and increasingly daring expressions of public discontent, China's leaders and intellectual elites are also searching for long-term legitimacy.
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Despite Party's calls to "speak with one voice," dissenting ideas, differences being voiced
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Lu: Dominating the debates are the neoliberals and neo-Maoists who occupy the leadership
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Neo-liberals see free market, democracy as universal; Wang Yang represents them, Lu says
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Bo, tipped for Standing Committee until his fall, neo-Maoists touted "common wealth"
China is in urgent need of a soul, a set of dominant ideas, as the efficacy of the @placeholder's official ideology -- emphasizing "harmonious society" and "scientific development" -- diminishes.