The End of the Beijing Consensus | Foreign Affairs

The essay is worth noting not only because of its content, but also that the author is close to the current Chinese administration. The fact that such an essay made its way to Foreign Affairs may imply some internal tensions within CCP.

The End of the Beijing Consensus | Foreign Affairs

Those measures, however, may be too weak to discourage the emergence of powerful interest groups seeking to influence the government. Although private businesses have long recognized the importance of cultivating the government for larger profits, they are not alone. The government itself, its cronies, and state-controlled enterprises are quickly forming strong and exclusive interest groups. In a sense, local governments in China behave like corporations: unlike in advanced democracies, where one of the key mandates of the government is to redistribute income to improve the average citizen's welfare, local governments in China simply pursue economic gain.
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The reforms carried out over the last 30 years have mostly been responses to imminent crises. Popular resistance and economic imbalances are now moving China toward another major crisis. Strong and privileged interest groups and commercialized local governments are blocking equal distribution of the benefits of economic growth throughout society, thereby rendering futile the CCP's strategy of trading economic growth for people's consent to its absolute rule.
An open and inclusive political process has generally checked the power of interest groups in advanced democracies such as the United States. Indeed, this is precisely the mandate of a disinterested government -- to balance the demands of different social groups. A more open Chinese government could still remain disinterested if the right democratic institutions were put in place to keep the most powerful groups at bay. But ultimately, there is no alternative to greater democratization if the CCP wishes to encourage economic growth and maintain social stability.

The main thesis is thought provoking, and worth further exploring. The narrative is familiar, though. The central government is the good "cop", and the local governments act only in self-interest and ruined the well intended policy. It still leaves people wonder how to explain those policies clearly favored the interests of members of central government.