Drawing on decades of research and teaching on China, Robin Porter presents a nuanced view of the country's modern evolution and historical influences. Porter visited China during the Cultural Revolution and worked as an editor at the Xinhua News Agency during the 1970s. In this volume, he explicitly accounts for the factors that gave rise to the country's current trends and behaviours, providing a rich understanding of an unpredictable though formidable world power.

Porter begins with China's social and political development from its earliest times to the modern period and concludes with a look at the country today, reassessing the events that most determined its evolution. He concentrates on the role played by politics and culture in conditioning every aspect of Chinese life. His analysis considers the country's Confucian heritage, ideological and legal orthodoxy, political command structures, technological innovation, enterprise management, public policy, private goals, and prospects for democracy. Through his personal insight and informed perspective, Porter clarifies a number of mysteries about modern China and the implications of its expansion for the balance of world power. Most important, he provides crucial context for the "China dimension" that has become so central to discussions of western national and international policy.