WHAT DOES CHINA THINK? by Leonard, Mark;

Short description:

This is an invigorating book about the debates raging within China. We all know about the fast pace of change in this country. This book brings us the ideas being fought over in the country itself - from democracy to the idea of a'peaceful rise'. It challenges all of our assumptions about China. We know everything and nothing about China. We know that China is changing so fast that the maps in Shanghai need to be rewritten every two weeks. We know that China has brought 300 million people from agricultural backwardness into modernity in just 30 years (something that took 200 years in Europe). We have an image of China as a dictatorship; a nationalist empire that threatens its neighbours and global peace. But how many people know about the debates raging within China about grass-roots democracy; building a peaceful'East Asian Community'modelled on the European Union; and moving from a low-wage laissez-faire economy to a high-skill knowledge economy based around social democracy? In"What does China Think?", Mark Leonard asks you to forget everything you thought you knew about China - and start again. He will introduce you to the thinkers that are shaping China's future rather than those who developed its past. The book will bristle with their ideas and show that the biggest country in the world has a future that is wide-open. It will open up a hidden world of Chinese thinkers, intellectual debates, and activism that is driving a new Chinese revolution - and changing the face of the world.