'He's not cool,' Chinese magazine editorial slams Xi Jinping for lacking 'wisdom and courage'

A Beijing-based business magazine raised eyebrows this week by running a full-page editorial urging the country’s leaders to pursue further political reforms to ensure future economic prosperity.

In what many consider a rare and bold move, an editorial entitled “Let’s continue to care about politics,” criticised President Xi Jinping for lacking “wisdom and courage” in pushing forward necessary reforms.

Without directly naming Xi, Zhao Li, the weekly’s editor-in-chief wrote,

“It was only until last week when the debate broke out that our new leader’s verbal environment was confirmed - he is not fashionable, and he is far from cool.”

It continued to argue that risk-averse Chinese investors won’t be happy with a society where the distribution of wealth is "stagnant and deformed," and people's spending is therefore restricted.

“I know many investors who reminisce about Deng,” he wrote, referring to Deng Xiaoping, China's reformist leader who after Mao Zedong died in 1976 led the country towards a more market economy  “Because the history of 1980s tells us the more the government gives up, the more our society will grow.”