China Alone: The Emergence from and Potential Return to Isolation

China’s emergence as an economic power over the last 20 years has astonished the world, as have the longevity and adaptability of its political system. Is this a whole new model or, as Anne Stevenson-Yang argues in this book, just one of China’s historical cycles of centralization and fragmentation, expansion and isolation? China’s ability to centralize its resources enables great leaps forward. But the unitary state lacks any checks or balances and creates massive abuses of power and ultimately a return to isolationism. China now may be on the brink of such a turn inward.Anne Stevenson-Yang, who has spent 23 years in China, was the first Cátedra Extraordinaria México-China at the Center for Chinese-Mexican Studies at the School of Economics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 2013.