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A bit dated, but The Chinese Army Today by Dennis Blasko is an excellent one volume look at the modern PLA. 2nd edition came out in 2013, so does not include the 2015-2016 reforms, but a foundational text on which to build.

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In the spirit of rectifying terms: "accountability" is awfully slippery absent "to whom" and "what for." Other govts have as much as China's to answer for, if not more, but have not. David Zweig has this account: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/china-gave-him-time-he-didnt-stop-david-zweig

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Not by a long shot. The PRC deliberately withheld vital information for extended periods of time and continues to do so. European and American governments have been slow to act in significant part due to the CCP's disinformation campaign.

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A couple of books that I’d put in a category with “The Party” - at least for me, are:

1) “China’s Quest” by John Garver — which, while an excellent overview of Chinese foreign policy, also provides the kind of big picture analysis that has been useful to me as I develop my own intellectual framework about China.

2) “China’s Dream” by Kerry Brown, also explores the growth of nationalism, the return of Confucianism, and the concept of Deep China, which he calls the “terrain of the real new cultural revolution.”

3) François Bougon’s “Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping” is a very fast read, but I was slowed by all my note taking. I thought it an excellent book.

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Re virus origin fight.

This worldwide review below on patgoge labs, before politicization,

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/3/20/18260669/deadly-pathogens-escape-lab-smallpox-bird-flu

is actually useful and educational. Read it if you are not simply looking for evidence and punishment to 'fit a crime'.

Turth matters. The world can't get to the truth if it is politicized and the biggest actor in this whole sorry saga is criminalized a priori and therefore would refuse to participate and cooperate.

What do the hawks actually want to achieve by politicizing the whole thing? War? Collective Punishment? Regime Change, which amounts to a combination of war and collective punishment anyway? Interested at all to know how the virus actually started and what can be learned from facts, for the sake of humanity?

If your answer is that removing chicom is a moral obligation and is worth any cost, then am sorry, I heard that before, from the likes of, you know, the usual suspects, those genocidal political geniuses that make history so 'fun'.

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On literature: I currently read Kishore Mabhubani's "Has China won?" His analysis is spot-on, however, his recommendations are very Singaporean-pragmatic and disregard the strong emphasis on ideology in Xi's self-declared new era.

The West has completely unlearned, how to deal with an opposition that is deeply rooted in ideology. Therefore, I warmly recommend reading Karl Marx's "Communist Manifest" and "Works" collection of Leon Trotsky writings - the latter being painful reading. Even more painful, some of the collection of Xi Jin Ping's important speeches (implies there were trivial ones...) are worth reading, too, just to get up to speed.

"How Asia works" by Joe Studwell I would also recommend.

The presentation series of Prof. John Mearsheimer "Can China rise peacefully?" is worth consideration.

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Books: I know it’s an old book now, and the subject has been well covered by other authors, but Xinran’s book China Witness is excellent.

The forgotten generation is fading away, and the lessons learned in those years are also being forgotten - or never learned in the first place.

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The logical conclusion for the push is that it adds to the mix and sustainability of Trump's China-baiting, whipping up enthusiasm among his base, which is his only shot at re-election. It also forces Biden to take a position on it which, in view of the rising anti-China sentiment in the U.S., is likely a lose-lose proposition for Biden. As long as China doesn't react inappropriately, it will likely turn out to be a misguided Hail Mary by Trump. Not enough to tip the election. He needs more than that to win. But, if China misreads the game films and reacts in a way that scares the U.S. citizenry, it could tip independents who feel we need a "strong" posture to fend off an aggressive China. Of course, if China favors Trump's re-election, than it may make a timely aggressive response to escalate fears in the U.S. The $64,000 question is, assuming China prefers Biden, whether China can create a lane for Biden to appear to be a solution that enables de-escalation.

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A great book: Will China Save the Planet? Barbara Finamore. Many insights into the China Paradox.

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Anything by Simon Leys.

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The combination of beautiful mind and a brilliant writer...simply extraordinary.

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really glad you commented on Kim. Even today's Economist has him missing. (headline only)

will be interested in comments about question 1.

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Make the enquiry not about China but about what can be learned from all the missteps by all the major governments. Making it about shifting the blame and scapegoating is totally immoral and ultimately self-defeating, as there is no proper and credible way of doing it, let alone enforcing it.

Making mad demands and not getting them would simply make one look weak, strengthen chicom domestically and eventually internationally.

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Selling bonds can mean simply holding cash and bills. There is no way to 'cancel' cash, not that there is a systematic way to trace and cancel what bonds China holds anyway. It s shocking how many and often political and public figures theses days come across as total morons and don't know or care.

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The book recommendations have been excellent and I only want to add one more — Louisa Lim's "The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited" for its excellent and multifaceted view of individual stories in the aftermath of 1989.

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3. Love the recs, but wanted to offer up some lighter, "beach reads" I've enjoyed over the years:

"Brave Dragons" by Jim Yardley (ex-NBA coach moves to Shanxi to coach)

"Midnight in Peking" by Paul French (An Agatha Christie set in 1937 Beijing)

"River Town" by Peter Hessler (first book I ever read on China, a classic)

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River Town is awesome

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Three books for understanding the PRC/CCP

"The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers" by Richard McGregor

"Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century" by Orville Schell and John Delury

"The Chinese Economy" by Barry Naughton

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On reparations: Extremely unlikely scenario. As Kishore Mabhubani pointed out, noone took the US to task for causing the Lehman crisis.

On a more common sense level, this pandemic could have occured anywhere.

Certainly, the Hubei party secretary and the Wuhan party secretary screwed it up and undermined an otherwise foolproof epidemic response system, which allowed the infection to prosper, which may imply liability on China's part.

Even including this screw-up, however, can anyone anywhere claim with confidence, it could not have started from his/her own country?

It is an extremely infectious, nasty virus, that seems to even stay dormant in patients who tested negative before. And that is the problem, not why it came from where.

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