Economy Elizabeth (ed.) The third revolution. Xi Jinping and the new Chinese state

New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. — xv, 343 p. — ISBN: 9780190866075.I undertook this study to try to answer these questions for myself and to help others make sense of the seeming inconsistencies and ambiguities in Chinese policy today. Sifting through all of the fastchanging, contradictory, and occasionally misleading information that is available on China to understand the country’s underlying trends is essential. Businesses make critical investment decisions based on assessments of China’s economic reform initiatives. Decisions by foundations and universities over whether to put down long-term stakes in China rely on an accurate understanding of the country’s political evolution. Negotiations over global climate change hinge on a correct distillation of past, current, and future levels of Chinese coal consumption. And countries’ security policies must reflect a clear-eyed view of how Chinese leaders’ words accord with their actions in areas such as the South China Sea and North Korea. As much as possible, I attempt to assess the relative success or shortcomings of the Chinese leadership’s initiatives on their own merits. In other words, I ask, what is the Chinese leadership seeking to accomplish with its policy reforms and what has it accomplished? I begin with Xi Jinping himself and lay out his vision for China and its historical antecedents. I then dive into six areas the Xi government has identified as top reform priorities — politics, the Internet, innovation, the economy, the environment, and foreign policy. In some cases, there are competing interests and initiatives to tease out. Nonetheless, taken together, these separate reform efforts provide a more comprehensive picture of the arc of Chinese reform over the past five years and its implications for the rest of the world. I conclude the book with a set of recommendations for how the United States and other countries can best take advantage of the transformation underway to achieve their own policy objectives.