Seeing China With Fresh Eyes

The hard work and enterprise of China’s people—not Communist Party policies—have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

More than two-thirds of the way into Stein Ringen’s slim, curious volume on contemporary China, he describes the sorts of conversations that Westerners who watch the country closely tend to have.

“Professor A: China is a dictatorship,” Mr. Ringen writes.

“Professor B: 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty.”