The average Chinese person probably knows more about the United States than the average American knows about China. A closer look at modern China’s history and politics, however, will reveal that the two countries have a great deal in common.

Though the Chinese leadership has labored over the past three decades to instill rules and norms into its elite selection process, concerns have persisted over the effectiveness and durability of these nascent institutional mechanisms. What institutional limitations and political barriers stand in the way? The selection of ethnic minority leaders provides a good case study that sheds valuable light on these questions.

Do the meritocratic features of the China model produce more competent leaders than democratic elections in America? In key ways, this seems certainly true.

Modernizing state governance in China depends on the successful promotion of rule of law, to stimulate orderly participation of the public and to maximize the public interest.

In this premiere episode of a new Chinese Youku series produced by Guancha.cn, Shanghai scholar/entrepreneur Eric X. Li talks with political scientist Francis Fukuyama about his latest book: “Political Order and Political Decay.”

The call for “real elections” has been the rallying cry of Hong Kong protestors, but open and direct elections of the Chief Executive may actually exacerbate the problem by introducing political gridlock. Lawrence Zhang explore three structural problems in the Hong Kong political system, highlighting the need to link up the Exco and Legco in a way that creates more effective and responsive government in practice as well as in the perception of the voting public.

China’s leaders are attempting to bring the country’s relationship with law into balance. The Chinese Communist party will remain supremely powerful, but th

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China's Central Committee will be held in November, as announced by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Aug 27.

China’s new leadership faces tough challenges at the third plenum of the 18th Central Committee with a focus on economic reforms. Minxin Pei writes that four policy priorities will dictate the success of China’s reforms: financial sector liberalization, an overhaul of the fiscal system, downsizing of state-owned enterprises, and abolition of the hukou system.