His engrossing, deeply reported and somewhat Orwellian survey of today’s China raises unhappy questions we all have yet to answer ... [Strittmatter] comes to this issue with the clear-eyed vision that accompanies firsthand experience ... Early in the book, Strittmatter takes aim at the two assumptions that panda huggers hold dear: If China wants to modernize, it will eventually have to embrace capitalism; by extension, if it has capitalism, democracy will soon follow. And, if China wants the Internet (and it does), it will have to accommodate the openness that comes with it. Strittmatter makes a compelling case that we are wrong to accept either of these beliefs.
... the most accessible and best informed account we have had to date of China’s transition from what scholars such as Rebecca MacKinnon used to call 'networked authoritarianism' to what is now a form of networked totalitarianism ... All of this and much more is energetically related by Strittmatter. The more one reads, the more pressing one conclusion becomes: almost everything we thought we knew about contemporary China is wrong ... If nothing else, this book should give us pause for thought.
... [a] fine-grained and alarming portrait of modern-day China ... Drawing on a wealth of experience in China, Strittmatter stuffs the book with telling details and incisive analysis. Even veteran China watchers will be impressed and enlightened.
... [a] highly relevant, frequently revelatory book ... In a systematic, well-written narrative, the author precisely examines the means by which China has achieved this 'perfect storm…for democracies everywhere' ... A frightening, vital wake-up call: The West ignores the rise of an Orwellian China at its peril.
