When I studied abroad in China back in 2012, I lived with a lovely retired couple that didn't speak a word of english. They really wanted to get their hands on a copy of "Mao's Great Famine", but obviously the book was banned. Using a VPN, I obtained a pirated digital copy (apologies), and they were ecstatic. Why? Because they lived through it.

He was from Beijing, and she was from Harbin. When they were young, they were forced to relocate to some middle-of-nowhere village and subsist on corn meal for many years. They handed him a medical tome supposedly written by The Chairman, thus christening him as the people doctor. They handed her a veterinarian tome (also written by The Chairman) and told her she's the animal doctor. They fell in love in that village, had a son, and are living out the rest of their days in Beijing. But they are in constant search for answers as to why they had to endure such insanity.

Thank you for having Dr Dikotter on the show.
I've lived and worked in China since the late 2000s and have seen a lot of changes here, especially when Xi took power in the 2010s. There was such a marked shift in the mood among not just officials but also the ordinary Chinese.
One of the many things Dr Dikotter got right about the CCP is that it keeps its cards close to itself, perhaps even just to Xi himself. They are very good at the game of bluffing and shaping the narrative, even to their own people. So, whether China is a fiery dragon or a paper tiger is not a question but a narrative that the CCP wants to project to the west.
Another thing I'd like to note is that covid and the riots that happened across China in late 2022 was a wake up call to the CCP that it does not always have the support of the common folk for whatever the party has on its agenda. The feeling among some observers was that the riots (directly in response to the tough, zero-covid lockdown measures) caused a re-think or at least a postponement of the CCP's plans to take over Taiwan. It wants and needs the full moral support of the people when it crosses the Taiwan Straits, and full moral support was found wanting.

H.R. McMaster was kind enough to note how cruel it was to have the dreams of talented young kids who were ecstatic to be accepted into Harvard University shattered…

“PRC is basically a war economy all along” it is true,and it is how we understand "the dictatorship of the proletariat"。It is indeed a war against capitalism. I'm a Chinese,and you can read about all of these theories  in school's  curriculum since junior .

Fantastic debate, great historians !

The US completely misjudged PRC. It made a stupendous mistake in developing such close economic ties and losing so much manufacturing and intellectual property to the PRC.

Great. To those interested, I recommend the long talk with Dikötter which appeared some months ago, possibly with Peter Robinson (can´t remember).

Great conversation, love it!

Quite watchable for a change.  Good speaker.

Poker should be a required subject in high school. :Life lessons in one game. 1) You have to play the hand you're dealt. 2) Learn when to hold and when to fold - focus on winning the game, not every round 3) There's a lot of randomness - you need to understand probabilities to win the game 4) People bluff, 5) If you never bluff you can't win 6) There's no such thing as risk-free life.

Appear strong when you are weak, appear weak when you are strong

Brilliant discussion, as usual.

Wow - great education - thank you.

I love those mental gymnastics

HK was known for Asia's world city, now it's just a chinese city.

Excellent discussion gentlemen. Thank you.

Good discussion. Very informative.

I read H.G Wells "Time Machine" many years ago,
And way back then I could see a parallel between the morlocks and chyna

Sort of ridiculous to describe/debate the nature of the ChiComm economy without pointing out why its been this successful- ANY political-economic system can survive and prosper if an open, imperial, hegemonic capitalist superpower invents, creates, and allows you to steal all of their ideas and serve as their manufacturing base.  The only reason their communist economy can do anything is because they steal it, and we allowed it.

Dikotter is awesome. How little we really know or understand about China. Thank you.