By: Jumel G. Estrañero
In November 2025, China held a high-profile commemoration for the 110th birthday of Hu Yaobang, a historically liberal Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader. Some international subject matter experts thought it might herald a return to a Deng Xiaoping-style reform amid China’s economic slowdown. Far from usual analysis, the recent tribute was not an embrace of liberal reform but denotes a well-crafted political act serving Xi Jinping’s current objectives; a political spectacle rather than a reform signaling.
