November 1, 2007 (LPAC)--In discussions with a Chinese scholar working at a U.S. think-tank, Executive Intelligence Review, brought up the observation that the latest Communist Party Congress had indicated something of a Rooseveltian thrust. The political report of Hu Jintao, the real basis of the congress discussion, was focused less on simply talking about maintaining high rates of growth and more on the need of improving the standards of living of the population. For instance, emphasizing the need for medical insurance, public education for the broad masses in the countryside, affordable housing, a social safety net, and dealing with the very real environmental problems that the hothouse development had brought with it..

Hu encapsulated this in the slogan 'a scientific view of economic development.' While these issues are not new for the period in which Hu has been party leader, they have been made the prime focus of the Congress and the party constitution has been amended to reflect these issues.

The scholar agreed, "People have started to call it Hu's 'New Deal'." The party debates over the 'New Deal' reflected the influence of the left, which complained that the rapid economic growth was at the cost of the great mass of the people, and the right, which wanted less state control over economic decisions, but it seems the party leadership had found a middle position.

The scholar also noted that among the Hong Kong analysts, there was lots of chatter about the party leadership reading a Roosevelt biography, a rumor which he thought might well have some substance to it."The Party is talking about the three mountains that have to be overcome," he said. "These mountains are education, housing, and medical insurance."