Originally published in French under title: La Chine m'inquiète. Paris : Perrin, ©2008

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the new "Chinese moment"
Book I. Measure for Measure
The Regime's New Foundations
In a New World
The Magnitude and Weaknesses of Growth
Book II. The Acid Test
Explanation
The Acceleration of History
Book III. The Great Riddles of the Future
Can China Be Governed
One People
Will China Finally Discover the World?
What Does China Want?
China's Great Challenge
Afterword: China moves toward a consumer economy

Based on his experience as a scholar and diplomat stationed in China, Jean-Luc Domenach consults a wealth of archival and recent materials to examine China's contemporary and future place in the world. A sympathetic yet critical observer, Domenach brings his intimate knowledge of the country to bear on a range of critical issues, such as the growth (or deterioration) of China's economy, the government's ever-delayed democratization, the potential outcomes of a national political crisis, and the possible escalation of a revamped authoritarianism. Domenach ultimately reads China's current progress as a set of easy accomplishments presaging a more difficult era of development to come. His finely nuanced analysis captures the difficult decisions now confronting China's elite, who are under tremendous pressure to support an economy based on innovation and consumption, establish a political system based on law and popular participation, rethink their national identity and spatial organization, and define a more positive approach to the world's problems. These leaders are also besieged by corruption among their ranks, an increasingly restless urban population, and a sharp decline in the country's demographic growth. Domenach uniquely taps into these anxieties and the attempt to alleviate them, revealing a China much less confident and secure than many would believe

Translated from the French