The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline

El autor con un lenguaje ameno nos presenta la hipótesis de que el éxito del modelo chino depende de cuatro vertientes(EAST) - Examination, Autocracy, Stability y Technology. Nos muestra con evidencia histórica porque estos componentes han moldeado la política china y como han sido usados para tener el control social.El texto también muestra las falencias del modelo chino y que puede ocasionar un cambio en su política.

Accessible yet most scholarly read. Thought provoking. A key takeaway is the author's observation that the economic success of a nation depends on "scope" (encouraging independent thought, ie. letting the "daisies bloom") and "scale" (making resources available so that innovation can be rapidly and cost effectively commercialized). Autocratic political structures discourage "scope" but can excel at mobilizing resources to achieve scale. China's model from the '80s-2018 was "heterodox", combining indigenous "scale" while "outsourcing" the scope via collaborations with Western scholars, businesses, enhanced by a reliance on Hong Kong's historical property rights and financing infrastructure.

I've read many books about China, trying to understand the country, and this is the best book I've read.It's clear and concise and has startling insights. A pleasure to read.

Helped me understand where China is coming from. Fairly academic so a push to get through but worth it.

In this book, MIT professor Yasheng Huang has a highly scientific analysis on why and how a seemingly crumbling authoritarian regime could have such long lasting stability, including why and how it survived the 1989 democracy movement, and where China could head next.Really worth your time to dive in if you’re curious about why some so-called China Experts had failed so miserably for so many years in predicting China’s total collapse.China is a giant puzzle and Huang’s academic book provides the best solution to help you solve it on your own.On a side note, a taste for reading a PhD dissertation would certainly help in completing this highly scholastic book. For those looking for thrills of denigrating China based on oversimplified ideological divide do not need to bother, although Prof. Huang did provide his insights on why the current system under Xi is worrisome and the dangers it pose to even the CCP elites.

I ask myself a simple question when I finish any foreign policy and history book, do I have more questions after the book than before. If a book does not open your mind to different ways of thinking than you bought the wrong book. While this is not a book for the masses, it is a book for people who want to look behind the Chinese government curtain and have a better understanding if the why behind Chinese actions.

This is an original analysis of how China's government and its system of control have developed,. starting from the first imperial examinations which locked a large part of the literate male population into a very limited (Confucian) view of the world, thus limiting any thinking 'outside the box.' The author dates the collapse in Chinese innovation to the start of these examinations, as they diverted millions from any independent thought or research. Particularly surprising was the author's view on Xi Jinping's succession; Xi has locked himself into a situation where he can't retire, having sent so many cadre to prison (or even execution) in his anti-corruption campaign which in the process also created millions of enemies in the Party who would like to do him in. This is particularly problematic because Xi's family itself is rumored to have over a billion dollars.

This is a great book!! Very informative and analytical to understand what China was and will be.The author is so detailed and insightful to lead readers to know what ahead of China and why this country will proceed to the next phase.A must read book for readers who want to know the future of the world and the fate of 1.4 billion Chinese people.