Reviews for China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation

The average rating for China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-12-16 00:00:00 Jose Luis Labalsa Llaquet Probably no one should read this book, unless they're me. Extremely dense and academic, Shambaugh puts in no effort whatsoever to make his latest monograph accessible to a wider audience. There's no attempt at a compelling narrative, no easy flowing prose, and no reason for anyone other than the most dedicated China watchers to pick up the book. Even I was bored at times. Overall it was extraordinarily well researched and extremely informative, and I'm glad I read it. But it sets a new standard for dry dry dry dry.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-02-16 00:00:00 Micah Allen Not bad. It requires a baseline of understanding about the PRC and its institutions to get though. Understandably it is very dry and academic, this isn't pop history or anything for the mass audience. Additionally, it is important to note that this is historically dated already. The author's opinions and predictions regarding China go off of how Hu Jintao was running it, not how Xi Jinping is running it today. The book mostly goes over the predictions for China in the future, China's analysis of the collapse of the Soviet Union and other foreign states (Singapore in particular), the CCP's various attempts at remaining relevant in a changing world, and finally how the author feels China will proceed from where it stood when he wrote it. Good for thought but as stated before, exceptionally dry.