China in period of transition

Hostesses jump as they pose for a picture during the opening of the National Peoples Congress in Beijing on March 5, 2017.Chinas rubber-stamp congress opened on March 5 in an annual pageant of Communist-controlled democracy. / AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR

THE study of modern China is fraught with pitfalls. Among these are confusion and misunderstanding, either of the subject itself or of other people’s perception of a scholar’s views of it.

Part of the problem is that there are more perspectives of China than there are people studying it. An analyst is not limited to one view, since that can change as the subject is seen to change over time.