Hi everyone, welcome to Dansonose History.

I'm talking about China today, right here on the podcast,

and it's a pretty important episode,

because either China has worked out.

That's unlocked the key to the future.

An authoritarian state with us controlled economy,

capable of generating vast amounts of money for people

who can live in material comfort

while enjoying no political and civil rights whatsoever,

in which case, well done, then,

or it's a gigantic bankrupt racket,

run by kleptocrats and cronies benefiting only the very fewest

at the top with political power.

This is probably the great question of our age, really.

And Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong,

Frank Decorter, is the man to talk to about it.

He's just written a new book called China After Mouth,

the rise of a super-powerage from the podcast,

before it's good to have him here again.

I'm going to be talking about what happened after Mouth died.

He died in 1976.

And typically the date given for the start of China's economic

...