Minxin Pei Warns China Has Descended into Totalitarianism

About this episode

Minxin Pei discusses the shift of China under Xi Jinping from authoritarianism to totalitarianism and the missed opportunities for political reform.

The paradox of dictatorship is that dictatorships do well when they do not have a genuine dictator. Minxin Pei In this episode of Democracy Paradox, Justin Kempf speaks with China scholar Minxin Pei about his book The Broken China Dream: How Reform Revived Totalitarianism and his argument that China under Xi Jinping has shifted from authoritarianism back toward totalitarianism. They explore the missed opportunities for political reform in the 1980s, the party’s post-Tiananmen survival strateg...

People in this episode

Host: Justin Kempf

Guest: Minxin Pei

Topics covered

• China
• totalitarianism
• authoritarianism
• political reform
• dictatorship
• Tiananmen

Keywords

• China
• totalitarianism
• Xi Jinping
• political reform
• dictatorship
• Tiananmen

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Broken China Dream

Places: China

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