Richard Cullen looks at a fascinating new book: Understanding China: Governance, Socio-Economics, Global Influence (by Chandran Nair and others, Routledge, Abingdon, 2026).
Strongly recommended: Richard’s Substack Newsletter: https://substack.com/@richardcullen376919
Routledge in the UK recently published an important new book, authored by Chandran Nair, Jorgen Randers, Jinfeng Zhou and Frederick Charles Dubee, entitled: “Understanding China: Governance, Socio-Economics, Global Influence.”
What the book argues
In the concise introduction, the experienced authors claim that: “There exists a void today in the understanding of China” adding that “almost all the discussions about China and its role in the 21st century take place along deeply divided ideological lines.”
They are right.
The authors make a particular effort, throughout the book:
- To use robustly informed, fact-checkable, footnoted arguments; and
- To stress an equally open understanding of China’s continuing, challenges, faults and failings placed alongside the story of its exceptional positive achievements.
Thus, they contend that China has:
- Benefitted very greatly from embedding itself within the huge Western-shaped economic-globalization project;
- Relied heavily on learning from others;
- Continued to face serious problems with corruption, deep-rooted nationalism, adverse demographics and structural economic difficulties; and
- Applied significant internal civil and political liberty constraints.
They also note how:
- Chinese authorities are the first to agree that China is not flawless;
- China is neither an enemy nor an infallible paradise;
- China is still maturing as a new superpower;
- Nationalistic narratives are still projected by Beijing – but there is also much truth in their portrayal of China’s often immense struggles over the last two centuries;
- China is a vast, ancient civilization, presently re-establishing its international presence as a primary – non-hegemonic – global power;
- The Chinese government “is steered by a deeply rooted and historically grounded devotion towards its people”; and
- The ruling elite of China is exceptionally committed to maintaining the performance legitimacy of government at all levels (which detailed surveys by American institutes consistently show underpins significant mass popularity).
The understanding-deficit
One way to get a grip on the seriousness of the pivotal problem addressed in the book, is to consider a germane case study.
The Economist is arguably the most prominent, media-based, political-economic opinion leader in the Global West. This flagship outlet is especially well staffed by articulate, highly educated, often multi-lingual correspondents.
Three leading China-focused operatives from The Economist recently returned from a week of high-level discussions in Beijing. This team explained what they had drawn from this visit in an online interview soon after they returned to London (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X365ooH_0gQ).
See for yourself, but I found, based on the interview, that it was fair to conclude this trio left comfortably convinced that West is best and returned predictably and fluently re-convinced that this remained so.
The Deputy Editor, Ed Carr, argued that, “China is cautious, ageing and hidebound by party ideology,” concluding that we could see a future where America, with its “remarkable ability to reinvent itself” may “embrace upheaval” while “China shuts itself off.” The other three participants around the table nodded in convinced agreement.
Never mind, for now, the shredded cogency of that “remarkable America” perspective following Washington’s latest Iran calamity (see: Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/america-has-lost-arab-world).
But think about this.
China, with four times the American population, has, over the last 50 years, risen from having a GDP that was about 9% the size of the US economy to having an economy that is 67% of the size of the US economy and remains on track to exceed the size of the US economy within a decade (see: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3347863/china-still-track-supplant-us-worlds-no-1-economy-10-years-academic).
Using a PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) measure China’s economy exceeded the size of the US economy more than a decade ago (see: https://insidestory.org.au/china-already-number-one-says-the-imf/).
Then there are those 800 million people that China has, according to the World Bank, lifted out of abject poverty. The influential historian, Adam Tooze, recently concluded that China has, since 1978, produced “the greatest success story in developmental history” (see: https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/08/adam-tooze-un-sustainable-development-goals-us-aid-finance-economy/).
Surely this globally unprecedented, massively uplifting national growth could not have been guided and achieved over the last 50 years by a government “hidebound by party ideology”. But the government in Beijing surely cannot have just recently slipped into this sharply identified state of grim “hideboundness.” Never mind, apparently China is just hidebound, and that’s that.
Intelligently applied understanding
Zenal Garcia is an Associate Professor of Security Studies at the US Army War College, who recently published a short, penetrating essay entitled: “Why the West keeps misreading China’s strategy” (see: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/04/why-the-west-keeps-misreading-chinas-strategy/).
Professor Garcia begins by arguing that:
Western analysis often assumes China operates like the United States. That misreading obscures a more transactional, less entangled approach to global partnerships.
The January 2026 capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the February 2026 decapitation of Iran’s leadership have been frequently framed as strategic losses for China, with Beijing having invested heavily in both regimes. But this framing rests on a flawed assumption – that Beijing approaches international partnerships the same way Washington does, through durable political alignment, reputational commitments and implicit security obligations.
Professor Garcia is a perceptive, unsentimental military analyst working to advance the best interests of the US Army. This introduction shows he is also someone who has applied himself, as one in his position should, to understanding China as it is – and not through a Western lens.
He completes the article in this way:
The events in Venezuela and Iran are not a blow to Chinese interests as Western analysts have framed. By toppling Maduro US President Donald Trump’s administration has arguably relieved Beijing of responsibility for Venezuela’s problems, allowing China to position itself as a more cautious actor in Latin America while Washington faces the aftermath.
Understanding China on its own terms – as a state with different theories of power, institutional preferences and tolerance levels for commitment costs – is the bare minimum of effective strategic competition. Until Washington understands that there is no sense in imputing US logic to China’s strategic worldview, it will keep misreading the board.
Conclusion
The case study above emphasizes:
- The continuing, high-level impact of the understanding-deficit stressed by this critical new book; and
- How it remains an acute problem in the Global West, conspicuously evident within the highly-educated, opinion-shaping leadership zone.
As this new book makes clear, misunderstanding arising out of a primary, widespread lack of knowledge about China shaped by now continual Western recourse to “us vs them” geopolitical narratives is a fundamental concern.
The challenge to better understanding presented by those who are very well educated and worldly-wise – evident above – is patently more serious.
The book’s lead author, Chandran Nair, put it, convincingly, this way in a recent related article:
Only through empirically informed analysis delving into the country’s institutions and people – drawing upon both culturalist and materialist lenses – can the world fully understand China today. China is not a threat.
However, given its size, scale, and vast potential, its rise will inevitably generate challenges. In tackling and resolving these challenges with China, the international community, as a collective, improves and grows. An inter-civilisational dialogue between China and the world is not only an imperative for academics, but critical for world leaders and thinkers striving towards a more peaceful world (see: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12/understanding-china-governance-socio-economics-global-influence/). .
This new book makes a compelling case supporting the need to understand China and it provides a cogent roadmap showing how to approach this crucial task. Unfortunately, too few are paying attention to this appeal.
But perhaps one day we may see an erudite team from the likes of The Economist return from a week’s research in Beijing and talk, in good part, about what (shock horror) the West might learn from China! This would be a measurable sign of progress.
Richard Cullen is an adjunct law professor at the University of Hong Kong and a popular writer on current affairs.
To see a list of articles he has written for this outlet, click this phrase.
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Images in the text are from Pexels.