Contributor(s): Professor Athar Hussain, Dr Debin Ma, Professor Arne Westad | The 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party held last November saw a wholesale replacement of the old with a new Party leadership. More than two-thirds of the old team has stepped down, and the change has yet to run its full course. March this year is going to witness the appointment of a new government leadership, including the President, the Prime Minister and the State Council. In time, the impact of this change at the top will ripple through to the lowest level of the government. The new generation of leaders has given rise to a mixture of renewed hope for overdue political and economic reforms and uncertainty about its stance towards domestic and foreign problems and issues. The panellists, Chinese population and the world outside are still coming to terms with the change that is taking place. The panel discussion aims to assess and answer at least some of the questions raised by the change. Professor Athar Hussain is director of the LSE Asia Research Centre. Dr Debin Ma is lecturer in Economic History, LSE. Professor Arne Westad is co-director of LSE IDEAS.