Book review: will China dominate the 21st century? by Jonathan Fenby

In this short and accessible book Jonathan Fenby successfully traces the huge inadequacies of the Chinese state from suffocating authoritarianism to long term economic mismanagement. The beauty of Fenby’s book is that it is superbly concise; with over 30 years’ experience of covering China, Fenby is able to distil complex ideas down to their core elements and burnish them with accompanying illustrative anecdotes. For students of Chinese politics or international relations this is a book well worth reading, writes Merlin Linehan, but it lacks the details that a more advanced China scholar might crave.