China in 2019 -- reform or staying the course?

China bid farewell to Maoism with the launch of its economic reform in 1979. Four decades later, its leaders confront a stark choice: revive long-stalled reform or risk long-term stagnation in face of deteriorating economic fundamentals and a hostile external environment.

What President Xi Jinping decides in the coming year will almost certainly determine which direction China will move in the next few decades because the world it lives in has changed beyond recognition in the last few years.