| Summary: | “Eric Li makes the case for the Chinese system with flair and intellectual agility. Some in the West will be angered by his views. They should read him nonetheless.” — Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times “The biggest story of our time is the return of China, the world’s oldest continuous civilization. Yet, despite its legendary universities, think tanks, and professional pundits, the West has completely misunderstood this story. Eric Li has done both the West and the Rest a huge favour by taking a deep dive into the sources of this great misunderstanding. This book is a must-read for all who are looking for an antidote to the massively distorted depictions of China in the Western media.” — Kishore Mahbubani, a Distinguished Fellow at NUS, author of Has China Won? The return of China as a great power is perhaps the most consequential development for the world in the 21st century. Yet, what the Western world sees in this development is largely through the prism of misinterpreted ideological dichotomy and misguided geopolitical rivalry. This book offers a deep look at the Chinese Communist Party and the nation it leads at conceptual, historic, and operational levels. If Thomas Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shift can be used in the social sciences, then China would represent the most significant anomaly to the dominant liberal exemplar. For students of China and of politics in general, and for the Western political and commercial elites, if they were to read one book about China to grasp the nature and weight of the Chinese phenomenon, Party Life would be it. Eric Li is a venture capitalist and political scientist in Shanghai. He is chairman and managing partner of Chengwei Capital and chairman of Guancha.cn. He is a regular contributor of leading international publications on China and comparative political systems
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