china politics

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Class4/27/2018 The Mystery of China’s FutureAnja Manuel wrote a book titled This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States. She uses this title because she sees two possibilities for the future. The first possibility is based on the meaning of Shakespeare's poem; the future is hopeful. The second meaning is from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World; the future may be dystopian (Manuel, 12-17). Manuel writes about U.S. foreign policy in great detail, including the histories of India and China regarding political leaders and economic development. From history we see that there are always different paths a nation can move toward. A nation can become totalitarian and dystopian as China was under Mao. However, this situation did not last when free market reforms came (Manuel, 35-45). There are many details of the book we could examine, but the situation of China is particularly fascinating.China has a problematic history; it is officially Communist, but there have been many free market reforms. This begs the question of how Communism could be seen as legitimate. The author describes the political system: “Xi and many other princelings think of themselves as the true heirs of the Communist Party, who must save and reform it before it loses its legitimacy” (Manuel, 42). Moreover there is a one party system where a small elite hold power (less than 10% of the population are members of the Communist Party).

At the top there is a 200 member central committee that elects a 7 member standing committee. The standing committee rules China with president Xi Jinping (Manuel, 37). It is a very different system from our own nation with a very different history. The big question is whether the government will become more authoritarian to keep itself in power, this can easily happen. Works CitedManuel, Anja. This Brave New World: India, China, and the United States. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2016.