Council of Councils
Think Global Health
Online Store
Introduction
Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming. But despite intensified diplomacy, the world is already facing the consequences of climate…
Episode Guests
Show Notes
On this week’s Asia Unbound podcast, Stein Ringen, emeritus professor at the University of Oxford and author of The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century, gives us his take on the Chinese party-state. He dubs China today a “controlocracy,” a sophisticated dictatorship that values its grip on power above all else. Ringen believes that Xi Jinping’s anticorruption campaign aims not just to flush out political rivals or protect state coffers, but to root out competing power centers that subvert Beijing’s control. His book is as exacting and stark as a Jo Nesbø novel—and his conclusions are just as grim. Listen in as Ringen describes how even with continued deep engagement from the international community, China’s best-case prognosis is a “hard dictatorship.” Without engagement, China’s fate is far worse—all-out authoritarianism or total chaos. And that’s a China no one wants to see.
First came Mao, then came Deng, now Chinese President Xi Jinping has ushered in the Third Revolution, introducing sweeping reforms throughout the government, economy, and society. Unlike past leaders…
Under President Xi Jinping, China’s era of opening up and reform has drawn to an end, and a new era—one marked by the consolidation of power under Xi himself—has dawned. In his new book, End of an Er…
With over 5,000 years of history, modern China must be understood through the lens of its past. In his recent book, Bully of Asia: Why China's Dream is the New Threat to World Order, Steven Mosher ar…