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Topic: Politics

The Perfect Dictatorship?

The Perfect Dictatorship?

A new book argues that “smart authoritarianism” enabled China's economic growth while keeping draconian control over its society. But is it really possible for the...
The Bomb is Back

The Bomb is Back

The myth of China's nuclear restraint obscures the dangers of its rapidly expanding arsenal. A trio of recent books take us from the bomb’s origins...
Xiang Biao on a Society at the Edge

Xiang Biao on a Society at the Edge

An anthropologist with a wide youth following and a knack for popularizing academic terms explains how China’s stratified society led to social malaise amid economic...
The Totalitarian Gene

The Totalitarian Gene

A new theory of China’s political DNA advances a dark thesis: that totalitarianism is institutionally encoded in the nation-state, and cannot be reformed.
Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father

Xi Zhongxun, one of China’s early communist revolutionaries, tried to balance reformist instincts with loyalty to the Party. His failure left an indelible mark on...
Empire of Engineers

Empire of Engineers

China has been a nation of engineers, from imperial to communist rule. America’s lawyerly society could learn something from that — but civil and social...
China Conspiracy Theories

China Conspiracy Theories

From Covid as a bioweapon to Chinese soldiers infiltrating America, Alexander Boyd discusses the right-wing conspiracy theories that lead our ranking of bestselling China books.
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