For most Chinese media outlets, what "Change We Can Believe In" or "Yes We Can" entails is already a myth, much less its association with Barack Obama, or the Democratic vision for the United States.

So when The Economist truly believes the "Four Comprehensives", the Chinese strategic layout put forward by President Xi Jinping, "may have staying power" and "is actually recognizable as the platform Mr. Xi has tried to implement", we ought to applaud it for paying attention.

But a few words are still in order, as it appears the newspaper, and some of its Western peers, have rather an issue with how China crafts its own political slogans.

"Chinese Communist slogans do not count if you cannot count by them", lamented The Economist, as if that was something wrong. In that case, what about "American campaign slogans do not stick if you can't stick them on car bumpers"?

The point we are making is that political ideas, and more notably the expression and mass communication of them, are bound by the unique tradition and culture of each distinct political system.

It is unreasonable and unrealistic to expect one sovereignty's political slogans to fall in line with another's, as all politics is domestic.

There is no universal standard for promoting political concepts, as long as the promotion proves effective at the receiving end.

The Four Comprehensives -- which refers to "comprehensively" building a moderately prosperous society, deepening reform, advancing the rule of law, and strictly governing the Communist Party of China -- has been echoed across the Party, government and military echelons.

Calling it a victory may be premature, as Xi has incorporated rich content into the Four Comprehensives and there is still much to learn. But an inability or lack of appetite to digest the concept, as some Western reports have shown by treating them as cliche, may cause them to disconnect from the theme of Chinese politics.

The Economist queried "when the party is going to stop trying to reduce complex issues and policy debates to slogans you can count on the fingers of both hands". On that, we have no definite answer. However, if such complex issues can be summarized with a few fingers, helping people better understand them, what's the problem?

By the way, we would also like to note the increasing soft touches in recent Chinese political communications. For the leadership, from their appearing in cartoons, to their uttering of Internet buzzwords - the word of the current legislative session is Renxing - that are hugely folk-popular, their choice of words would be everything but, well, Renxing.

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