33 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Jacques Gernet's definitive single-volume history of Chinese civilization — covering prehistory through the 20th century — the most comprehensive and scholarly history of China available in a Western language for several decades.
A book examining Apple's complex and high-stakes business relationship with China — covering manufacturing, market dependence, regulatory pressure, and the geopolitical risks of Apple's deep integration with Chinese supply chains and consumer market.
American China economist — founding partner of Gavekal Dragonomics, the leading independent China economic research firm — author of China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know — one of the most credible independent analysts of Chinese economic policy.
Stephen Platt's 2012 narrative history of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) — the Christian millenarian civil war that killed approximately 20 million people and nearly destroyed the Qing dynasty — told through the perspectives of both Chinese and Western participants.
American China analyst at American Enterprise Institute — former DOD official — author of The China Nightmare — one of the leading analysts of Chinese military strategy and US-China relations.
American national security strategist — former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense — author of The Strategy of Denial — the leading theoretical architect of a US military strategy focused on denying China control of Taiwan.
American China specialist — former Hoover Institution fellow — former undersecretary of commerce for international trade (2021–2023) — author of The River Runs Black and The Third Revolution — one of the most influential China watchers in US policy circles.
Dutch-British historian at the University of Hong Kong — author of the People's Trilogy (Mao's Great Famine, The Tragedy of Liberation, The Cultural Revolution) — the most rigorous Western historian of the Maoist period in China.
Chinese Jungian analyst and sandplay therapist who is a leading figure in the development of analytical psychology in China — pioneering the introduction and adaptation of Jungian analysis to Chinese cultural and philosophical contexts.
French Sinologist at the Collège de France who wrote A History of Chinese Civilization — the definitive single-volume history of China in a Western language — and China and the Christian Impact, examining how Chinese intellectuals understood early Christian missionaries.
Chinese-British author — author of Wild Swans (on her family's three generations through 20th century China) and Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon Halliday) — who produced the most widely read account of the Cultural Revolution from a survivor's perspective.
Chinese-American science fiction writer who wrote The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms (Dandelion Dynasty), translated Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem into English, and whose short fiction The Paper Menagerie won the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards.
Founding chairman of the People's Republic of China — who led the Communist Party to victory in the civil war (1949), launched the Great Leap Forward (1958–62, 45 million deaths) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) — the most lethal political figure in history by direct policy consequences.
Former Republican congressman from Wisconsin (2017–2024) — Marine intelligence officer and Arabic linguist — former chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party — one of the most intellectually serious voices on China threat assessment.
John Woo's 2008 epic film depicting the Battle of Red Cliffs (208 AD) from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms — the battle in which Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu defeated Cao Cao's vast navy through intelligence and deception — the most expensive Chinese film made to that point.
German Protestant missionary-turned-Sinologist who spent 25 years in China, mastered Chinese, and produced the translations of the I Ching and The Secret of the Golden Flower that Jung collaborated on — his translations are still the most respected in the field.
Luo Guanzhong's 14th century historical novel dramatizing the three kingdoms period (220–280 AD) — one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature — depicting the rivalry of Wei, Shu, and Wu through the lives of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, and Guan Yu.
American historian — professor at the Naval War College — author of The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 and The Wars for Asia 1911–1949 — the leading US expert on East Asian military history.
American historian at UMass Amherst who wrote Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom and Imperial Twilight — providing narrative accounts of the Taiping Rebellion and the Opium Wars respectively, making 19th century Chinese history accessible to general audiences.
Ancient Chinese military general and strategist — attributed author of The Art of War — whose identity is debated — the most influential military strategist in East Asian history and the most globally applied ancient thinker.
Sun Tzu's 5th-century BCE military treatise — 13 chapters on strategy, deception, and the relationship between victory and avoiding battle — the most widely read military strategy text in history and the most applied ancient text in contemporary business.
The multi-volume Cambridge History of China — the most comprehensive scholarly history of China in English — now comprising 15 volumes covering all periods of Chinese history from the Ch'in dynasty through the People's Republic.
Ken Liu's 2015 epic fantasy novel that transposes the Chu-Han contention (the conflict between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu following the fall of the Qin dynasty) into a richly imagined Pacific archipelago world — the first volume of the Dandelion Dynasty series.
Eva Dou's 2024 account of Huawei — China's most powerful technology company — covering its founding by former PLA officer Ren Zhengfei, its global expansion, and the US government's campaign to contain it as a national security threat.
Jonathan Kaufman's 2020 parallel history of two powerful Jewish families — the Sassoons and the Kadoories — who dominated Shanghai commerce for a century, until Mao's revolution ended their world.
Amaury de Riencourt's 1958 interpretation of Chinese civilization — applying civilizational cycle theory to China's history and arguing that China has moved through recurring cycles of feudalism, unification, decline, and renewal, with a distinctive Chinese cultural genius that has survived every disruption.
Liu Cixin's 2008 Chinese science fiction novel (2014 English translation by Ken Liu) — the first in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy — beginning during the Cultural Revolution and expanding to first contact with an alien civilization on an unstable three-sun system.
Marco Polo's account (dictated to Rustichello da Pisa while in Genoese prison) of his travels through the Mongol Empire and China — the first detailed European account of East Asian civilization — which introduced the wealth of China, Persia, and the Mongol Empire to Western readers.
Liu Cixin's 2000 novella about humanity building engines to move Earth itself out of the solar system to escape an expanding sun — the basis for the hugely successful Chinese film — notable for its collectivist approach to human survival.
American political scientist at UC San Diego — the leading academic expert on Chinese elite politics and Communist Party factionalism — who uses biographical databases of Party officials to analyze Chinese political dynamics.
Chinese official who usurped the Han throne and founded the short-lived Xin dynasty — attempting to implement radical Confucian reforms (land redistribution, abolition of slavery, currency reform) that produced economic chaos and contributed to peasant uprisings that restored the Han dynasty.
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (2012–) and President of the People's Republic of China (2013–) — who ended term limits, consolidated personal power beyond Deng Xiaoping's collective leadership model, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and undertook the most aggressive Chinese territorial expansion since Mao.
Former JP Morgan China executive and co-author of Red Capitalism — one of the most rigorous analyses of China's state-directed financial system and its hidden risks.