Our table remains interested in things Chinese because of the connections of one of our members with that country.  China scholar M. Pei provides an assessment of past, present, and future in Foreign Policy:

China’s economic boom has dazzled investors and captivated the world. But beyond the new high-rises and churning factories lie rampant corruption, vast waste, and an elite with little interest in making things better. Forget political reform. China’s future will be decay, not democracy. . . .