What I want western commentators to understand first and foremost is that China is not simply a "regime" it is an identity, and that it is that identity which drives, shapes and structures its politics and foreign policy. Authoritarianism tells us nothing about what "China" means

The Communist Party may oversee everything in the country's political life, but at the same time the zero-sum obsession and reduction of all phenomena within China to a malign "communist party will" is useless in understanding the country. It is a simplistic ideological cliche.