Eduardo Araral is vice-dean of research and associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Richard Heydarian is a Manila-based academic and author of Asia’s New Battlefield: The USA, China, and the Struggle for Western Pacific.
The various hard and soft restraints instituted since Deng Xiaoping’s time to prevent the emergence of another Mao – including the principle of collective leadership – are more robust than observers believe.