Six books to help understand China’s domestic challenges

In 2018 China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said that “the torments of hunger, lack of food and clothing, and the hardships which have plagued our people for thousands of years have generally gone and won’t come back.” Over the previous four decades, the government’s reform-and-opening policy transformed China, moving several hundred million people into the middle class. But the country now faces big new challenges, such as corruption, inequality and climate change. These six books will help readers understand some of the issues that will define China in the decades ahead.