The_Wall_Street_Journal_Asia__September_13_2016

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Tuesday, September 13, 2016 |A

OPINION

How Xi Jinping Undermines China’s Reforms

‘W

e shall proceed with re-
form and opening up
without hesitation,”
China’s President Xi Jinping told his
country’s top leaders in August 2014
during a symposium marking the
100th anniversary of the birth of for-
mer leader Deng Xiaoping. At the
time, this pledge appeared sincere.
Since taking office in March 2013,
Mr. Xi had consistently advocated a
reform agenda intended to continue
the economic restructuring and na-
tional revitalization that Deng had
started in 1978. Now, two years later,
and despite his consolidation of
power, Mr. Xi’s reforms are mired in
a morass of bureaucratic hurdles and
official foot dragging.
The problem is that Mr. Xi’s
agenda is self-contradictory. It at
once calls for deepening reforms and
the rule of law while demanding
strict conformity with party ortho-
doxy. This recipe, which can be
called reform without opening up,
has failed to produce results.
True, China’s anticorruption cam-
paign has taken down hundreds of
thousands of officials within the
Communist Party. But it has yet to
be institutionalized, sending a pow-
erful signal to elites that it remains
politically motivated, a cudgel

wielded against the president’s ri-

vals. Many of those who might be af-

fected, therefore, are simply waiting

for the heat to die down or are ac-

tively working to thwart official in-

vestigations of their malfeasance.

Meanwhile, the once-enthusiastic

Chinese public has been shocked by

the extent of official graft, and for

good reason. In 2013, an estimated

180,000 officials were disciplined for

corruption. In 2014, the estimate

was 232,000. Last year, the figure

topped 300,000.

Economic reforms have also

stalled. Despite strong high-level

support at the outset, the initial ex-

citement over the Shanghai Free

Trade Zone has faded, shrugged off

as anachronistic by many foreign

firms seeking access to the entire

Chinese market. Similarly, Beijing’s

measures to liberalize currency

trading and capital markets have

been reversed.

When markets crashed last sum-

mer, authorities intervened by pur-

chasing equities, pressuring traders

not to sell, increasing lending and

infrastructure-investment spending,

tightening regulations on capital

outflows and depreciating the Chi-

nese currency. Although this tem-

porarily halted the market’s de-

cline, it also chilled investment and

exacerbated capital outflows. To

pump up the market, China is now

moving about 2 trillion yuan ($

billion) of its people’s pensions

from low-risk, low-yield govern-

ment bonds into riskier securities,

including equities.

The results are hardly reassuring.

Between March and June, China’s

currency fell 3% against the dollar,

its largest quarterly fall on record.

By July, China’s foreign-exchange

holdings were down to about $3.

trillion, off by about 20% from their

June 2014 peak of $4 trillion. They

remained steady in August.

Reforms have been stillborn be-

cause China’s “opening up,” initiated

by Deng in 1978 and reaffirmed by

Premier Zhu Rongji in the 1990s, is

under threat. Restrictions on infor-

mation flows on the internet and so-

cial media, known officially as “inter-

net sovereignty” or “governance of

cyberspace with Chinese socialist

characteristics,” have become more

pervasive, more difficult to surmount

and more effective at silencing dis-

sent. This trend will continue under

the new cybersecurity law slated for

approval later this year.

Moreover, an already-approved

nongovernmental-organization law,

which will take effect in January, has

put a chill on Chinese cooperation

with foreign organizations and stig-

matized that cooperation by placing

it under the purview of the security

services. At a time when interna-

tional coordination among NGOs and

transnational networks has reached

its apex, it has never been more dif-

ficult for foreign NGOs to work with

their Chinese counterparts.

Other elements of this tightening

include a new counterterrorism law

that requires foreign-technology

firms to hand over sensitive data to

Beijing. Visa restrictions have be-

come more onerous on foreigners.

And there has been an increase in

anti-Western, anti-liberal and anti-

Japanese attacks in the official

press. The word “sensitive” is now

regularly used at academic confer-

ences to preclude discussion of in-

convenient topics. Chinese women

are being warned not to date for-

eigners, for fear they are spies hunt-

ing for state secrets.

Another important reason for the

lack of progress is the autocratic

methods and Maoist tactics used to

advance reform. Mr. Xi has called on

“every branch and every member” of

the Communist Party to enforce a

yearlong political campaign to study

his speeches, ensure “strict party

management at the grassroots level,”

“consolidate Party members’ Marxist

positions and ensure that the entire

Party maintains a high degree of ide-

ological and political consistency.”

But this isn’t Mao’s China, and many

local cadres either ignore the slo-

gans or deride them in private.

As enthusiasm fades and obsta-

cles arise, the momentum of Mr. Xi’s

campaign-driven reform strategy has

proved short-lived. Today, many Chi-

nese still believe that China’s rise

can only continue through “opening”

and effective reforms. But the coun-

try’s current strategy runs counter

to this approach and harkens back to

an earlier era of politically driven

policy. As such, it is likely to con-

tinue provoking resentment and op-

position, from party members and

domestic interests as well as foreign

businesses and NGOs that feel unrea-

sonably constrained in an increas-

ingly hostile, nationalistic China.

Mr. Eisenman is an assistant pro-

fessor at the LBJ School of Public Af-

fairs at the University of Texas at

Austin and a senior fellow at the

American Foreign Policy Council.

By Joshua Eisenman

The president’s policies

are a contradiction of

liberalization and

retrenched Party orthodoxy.

Remembering the Courage of the CIA’s Friends

B

arack Obama last week became
the first sitting U.S. President
to visit Laos. Promising to
“continue to deal with the painful leg-
acy of war,” he announced increased
U.S. aid to help Laos clear unexploded
munitions from the so-called “secret
war” of 1962-75. Having served as a
CIA case officer in Laos in 1970, I
know something about that legacy—
particularly the bits that went un-
mentioned by Mr. Obama.
My own thoughts are with our
most loyal and dedicated allies from
that era, the dwindling Hmong of

northern Laos, for whom the war

never ended. A small population of

Hmong persist today in their ances-

tral mountains of Xieng Khouang,

waging a desperate struggle against

the Laotian government’s punitive

war of extermination. Their conflict

now isn’t so much “secret” as forgot-

ten or ignored, at least by the U.S.

and other outside powers.

For centuries the Hmong have

been fighting off encroaching for-

eigners—whether Lao, Chinese or

Vietnamese. They were enthusiastic

partners 40 years ago for U.S. offi-

cers seeking intelligence on the

40,000 to 60,000 North Vietnamese

soldiers who, at any given time, ille-

gally used Laos as a staging area and

conduit to South Vietnam. As part of

what was then the Royal Lao Army,

the Hmong were invaluable to U.S. ef-

forts to interdict and harass the in-

vading North Vietnamese.

Most of these brave Hmong were

captured or killed following the U.S.

withdrawal. In 1975 the Royal King-

dom of Laos became the “Lao Peo-

ple’s Democratic Republic,” which

proceeded to rape, murder or torture

more than 100,000 Hmong regardless

of whether they were “guilty” of hav-

ing helped the Americans. The lucky

ones fled through Thailand to Califor-

nia, Minnesota and Wisconsin. By the

1990s, fewer than 10,000 remained in

Laos and, as of 2016, perhaps 100 are

still fighting.

These few maintain a threadbare

guerrilla resistance against the geno-

cidal policies of the communist gov-

ernment in Vientiane—the same re-

gime that wined and dined Mr. Obama

last week. Mr. Obama’s speech only

mentioned the Hmong as part of

“Laos’s tapestry of proud ethnic

groups and indigenous peoples.” He is

likely unaware of the dramatic reality

in those mountains. The Laotian mili-

tary restricts access to the area, often

with landmines that are more reactive

than unexploded U.S. ordinance.

An intrepid Spanish documentary

film crew led by David Beriain re-

cently undertook the fraught and

dangerous mission of locating the

doughty Hmong in northern Laos.

The result is “Clandestino: The Lost

Army of the CIA,” produced by

93Metros y 7yAccion in conjuction

with The Discovery Channel. The film

has screened in Europe and is now in

negotiation for U.S. release.

The documentary traces the crew’s

journey from Hmong exile groups in

Minnesota, through the back alleys of

Udon Thani in Thailand, and to the

Laotian border, where they posed as

tourists to enter the country. From

there, the team trekked for two

weeks to find the secret and con-

stantly moving Hmong encampment.

The regime in Vientiane calls these

Hmong “insurgents,” but Mr. Beri-

ain’s extraordinary footage shows

that the handful of men, women and

children are just fighting to survive.

“I was 9 years old,” an adolescent

boy tells Mr. Beriain, recalling his

first firefight. “They shot my

grandpa, and I picked up his gun and

started shooting.”

The Hmong suffer most of their

casualties when venturing to find

food. In one scene, a 20-year-old

mother shows Mr. Beriain the scar on

her arm from the day Laotian sol-

diers attacked while she cooked roots

for her children.

The film highlights a few returned

exiles among the Hmong resistance

who snuck back into Laos from their

refuges in America. Most of the film’s

subjects are descendants of the

Hmong who worked with the CIA de-

cades ago. Combatants by birth, they

have effectively been trapped and be-

sieged their whole lives.

“Have you considered surrender-

ing?” Mr. Beriain asks one Hmong

man, who is no older than 40 and rid-

dled with bullet wounds. “My nephew

turned himself in,” replies the man.

“The Lao Army killed him, so we

can’t give up.”

Because I appear briefly in the

film, I was invited to the opening in

Madrid in May. Spanish press wanted

to know what effect I hoped the doc-

umentary would have on the tragic

situation in northern Laos.

No happy outcome seems possible

under current conditions: The Lao-

tian regime won’t tolerate the inde-

pendent existence of a minority out-

side its totalitarian control, and the

Hmong imperative to maintain their

way of life seems inextinguishable.

The Hmong have made repeated

pleas to the United Nations for help,

with little to show for it.

The best anyone can hope for is

that enough people will see this film

to bring moral pressure on Vientiane

for a humane modus vivendi. The

Hmong who survive in northern Laos

are the living legacy of the “secret

war,” and they want only to be left in

peace. I salute the producers of “The

Lost Army of the CIA” for making

such an outcome more likely, how-

ever remote it remains.

Mr. Jolis was a U.S. Army officer in

Vietnam in 1968-69 and a CIA officer

with the Hmong in northern Laos in 1970.

By Jack Jolis

A new film honors

a legacy that Obama

overlooked during his

visit to Laos last week.

PUBLISHED SINCE 1889 BY DOW JONES & COMPANY

Rupert Murdoch

Executive Chairman, News Corp

Gerard Baker

Editor in Chief

Robert Thomson

Chief Executive Officer, News Corp

William Lewis

Chief Executive Officer and Publisher

EDITORIAL AND CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS:
1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y., 10036
Telephone 1-800-DOWJONES

DOW JONES MANAGEMENT:

Ashley Huston, Chief Communications Officer;

Paul Meller, Chief Technology Officer;

Mark Musgrave, Chief People Officer;

Edward Roussel, Chief Innovation Officer;

Anna Sedgley, Chief Financial Officer;

Katie Vanneck-Smith, Chief Customer Officer

OPERATING EXECUTIVES:

Jason P. Conti, General Counsel;

Nancy McNeill, Corporate Sales;

Steve Grycuk, Customer Service;

Jonathan Wright, International;

DJ Media Group:

Almar Latour, Publisher; Kenneth Breen,

Commercial; Edwin A. Finn, Jr., Barron’s;

Professional Information Business:

Christopher Lloyd, Head;

Ingrid Verschuren, Deputy Head

Rebecca Blumenstein, Matthew J. Murray
Deputy Editors in Chief
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS:
Michael W. Miller, Senior Deputy;
Thorold Barker, Europe; Paul Beckett, Asia;
Christine Glancey, Operations; Jennifer J. Hicks,
Digital; Neal Lipschutz, Standards;
Alex Martin, News; Ann Podd, Initiatives;
Andrew Regal, Video; Matthew Rose, Enterprise;
Stephen Wisnefski, Professional News;
Jessica Yu, Visuals
Paul A. Gigot, Editor of the Editorial Page;
Daniel Henninger, Deputy Editor, Editorial Page
WALL STREET JOURNAL MANAGEMENT:
Trevor Fellows, Head of Global Sales;
Suzi Watford, Marketing and Circulation;
Joseph B. Vincent, Operations;
Larry L. Hoffman, Production

Clinton and Trump: Healthy Enough to Serve?

W

hen Hillary Clinton
left a 9/11 memorial
service on Sunday—
reportedly feeling
overheated, stum-
bling, seeming to be about to faint—
the question once again came up
about the health of America’s presi-
dential candidates and the public’s
right to know.
Medical advances of the 20th and
the early-21st century have helped
most people to live longer, healthier
lives, and U.S. presidents are no
exception. But older people often
have multiple medical problems,
and when they run for public office,
the question comes up as to
whether these problems could inter-
fere with performance.

In 2016 the U.S. has two older can-
didates, Donald Trump, 70, and Hillary
Clinton, 68. An argument can be made
that Mr. Trump should release his full
health records on the basis of his age.
His sparse but glowing physician’s let-
ter, from Dr. Harold Bornstein of Le-
nox Hill Hospital in New York City, as-
serts in classic Trump hyperbole that
if elected, Mr. Trump would be “the
healthiest individual ever elected to
the presidency.” Mr. Trump reportedly
has low blood pressure (110/65), takes
a daily aspirin, and is on Lipitor to
lower his cholesterol while admitting
to a diet containing considerable
amounts of fast food.

In contrast, Hillary Clinton’s doc-

tor, Lisa Bardack of Mount Kisco,

N.Y., has released a much more

extensive letter to cover, among

other things, Mrs. Clinton’s 2012

fall, concussion and incidentally

discovered blood clot on the out-

side of her brain (transverse ve-

nous sinus thrombosis) that (cou-

pled with a history of a previous

blood clot in her leg) will require

lifetime anticoagulation for which

she currently takes the blood thin-

ner Coumadin.

Dr. Bardack’s letter includes a de-

scription of Mrs. Clinton’s recovery

from concussion, the blood clot, a

follow-up MRI and subsequent neu-

rological testing a year later that is

reported as being normal. She

writes that Mrs. Clinton is in excel-

lent physical condition and fit to

serve as president.

What are missing are the records.

Is Sunday’s episode insignificant or

part of an underlying problem? Her

doctor reported later Sunday that

she was found to have pneumonia

Friday, is on antibiotics, was dehy-

drated and overheated but is now

better. Anything more specific is

bound by HIPAA, unless the candi-

date authorizes a private release to

a small group as John McCain did

when he was running for president

in 2008.

Without the actual facts, specula-

tion runs rampant, even among phy-

sicians. It isn’t acceptable for a doc-

tor to put forth diagnostic

impressions on a patient he hasn’t

examined or whose records he hasn’t

reviewed. I am concerned about the

speculative response to Mrs. Clin-

ton’s recurrent cough, especially

when you consider that up to 90% of

cases of chronic cough are due to ei-

ther postnasal drip, asthma or acid

reflux. All are common problems

that are treatable and in no way an

obstacle to being president.

In 1980 the media expressed con-

cern that Ronald Reagan was too

old at 69 to be president. There was

no mention of specific health is-

sues, and Reagan proved to be

healthy throughout his eight years,

with the exception of a near-fatal

gunshot wound that couldn’t have

been anticipated. Alzheimer’s dis-

ease as far as we know developed

after he left office.

Previous presidents, from Wil-

liam Henry Harrison (who died of

pneumonia after only a month in of-

fice), to Woodrow Wilson (who suf-

fered a stroke during his last term

that wasn’t revealed), to FDR (the

severity of his illness wasn’t pub-

licly known), to JFK (Addison’s dis-

ease), to Nixon (who took multiple

medications including the anticon-

vulsant Dilantin) had undisclosed

health problems.

More recently, public concerns

have been raised about the health of

candidates running for president. In

1996, Sen. Bob Dole at 73 became the

oldest candidate to run for

president, and he felt compelled to

release his full health records under

pressure from President Bill Clin-

ton’s campaign. Sen. John Kerry

allowed the media a brief look at his

military medical records in 2004,

and George W. Bush released approx-

imately 400 pages of health records

in 2000 and again in 2004.

But the first time a real standard

was superimposed was in 2008,

when I joined a group of more than

20 journalists in Phoenix for a pri-

vate three-hour session at a local

hotel to review more than 1,

pages of Sen. McCain’s medical re-

cords. The focus was on the sena-

tor’s age (71) and his history of

melanoma, as he’d had four. Our

endeavor was a witch hunt of sorts,

though we all concluded from the

records that the melanoma hadn’t

spread or recurred and Mr. McCain

was fit to serve. Requests for then-

Sen. Obama to release his records

for a similar viewing got no trac-

tion, only a short letter that re-

vealed him to be a former smoker

with low cholesterol and blood pres-

sure who jogged frequently.

In retrospect, his youth and vigor

were probably enough, and 2008 set

the new standard that unless you

were elderly or had a significant

medical history, summary letters from

a candidate’s primary-care physician

were necessary and sufficient.

Flash forward to 2012. Mr. Obama

was again pronounced fit, having

reportedly not smoked while in the

White House and working out

several times a week. Challenger

Mitt Romney, then 65, released a

letter that revealed his active health

problems to be only benign prostatic

hypertrophy, low heart rate and high

cholesterol (on Lipitor). The new

standard had been met.

I was never completely comfort-

able with the way Sen. McCain was

treated in 2008, though at least by

the time the records were released

in May the obsessive media focus

wasn’t on questions of PTSD from

the Vietnam War, only on his mel-

anoma history. A new standard

was set then, and it should be fol-

lowed now.

I call it the McCain Protocol: If

you are 70 or over (Mr. Trump) or

have a health history (Mrs. Clinton),

records should be made available by

the candidate for a private viewing

of select journalists or perhaps an

independent board of physicians.

This transparency may be excessive,

but consistency would demand that

it be part of the vetting process for

our highest public office.

Dr. Siegel is an internist in New

York City and medical correspondent

for Fox News.

By Marc Siegel

REUTERS

Candidates over the age

of 70 or with a medical

history should release their

health records for private

viewing by a few reporters.

Hillary Clinton leaves the National 9/11 Memorial in New York, Sept. 11.

To reprint or license content, please contact our reprints and licensing department at +1 800-843-0008 or http://www.djreprints.com