The Chinese never tire of telling anyone willing to listen that they have been around for 5,000 years. It’s a gambit that has always thrown Westerners into confusion, ever since 1793 when Lord Macartney humiliatingly failed to establish trade relations with Beijing, despite Britain being the imperial superpower. It’s a game of one-upmanship the Chinese can hardly lose. The Mother of Parliaments is a babe in arms compared with the Chinese state. But while there is no reason to doubt that China, as a huge and comparatively homogeneous nation, will continue to bestride Asia, is its ruling Communist Party equally sure of survival? China’s self-confidence is the product of a political culture of...
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