Xi Jinping following in Deng Xiaoping's reformer footsteps, ex-adviser says

Xi Jinping is proving himself to be heir to one of China's great reformers, Deng Xiaoping, says one of the president's former policy advisers.

Xi adheres to the line of reform pioneered by Deng rather than siding with the more traditional policies of Mao Zedong as some analysts believe, said Shi Zhihong, former deputy director of the Central Policy Research Office.

Shi said the wide-ranging blueprint for reform announced at a Communist Party plenum in November made clear that Xi was a reformer like Deng.

Xi's first official trip outside Beijing to Guangdong province in 2012 was also rich in symbolism, he said. Deng toured the same area in 1992.

Xi has also echoed Deng's earlier speeches, saying it would be a "dead end" if the country failed to reform and it should waste no more time in implementing "deeper reforms".

Xi and Deng were both practical men whose reforms were designed to tackle the social and economic problems facing the country, he said.