This book takes a hard look at China and the USA, and some of the contrasts and similarities between them. The author is a young American with Chinese ties and has a lot of interesting ideas about how the Chinese government operates and what America needs to do in order to improve.
One thing I liked right away is the author’s caution – both countries need to do better to make life better for the citizens who live there. This is not a zero-sum game, and it would be simplistic to look at it that way.
Thanks to his insights, and his experiences in China there is a lot of timely information that I think would contribute to a better understanding for Americans reading the book.
While the first half of the book did a great job of looking at some key events in the history of China and how they see themselves, the second half of the book is almost entirely anecdotal stories which I got less benefit from. There is a very long chapter on how China handled the COVID pandemic, and that was interesting to me. Most people I meet are eager to forget that chapter of history (wherever they are from) but I appreciated the in-depth coverage here.
There is also a long section on the author’s family and background, which felt sort of self-centered to me – I would prefer a bigger picture view.
Next I am reading The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.
