Book excerpt: Drawing on decades of research and teaching on China, Robin Porter presents a nuanced view of the country's modern evolution and its myriad historical influences. Porter has a wealth of practical experience with China, having first visited the country during the Cultural Revolution and having 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 China's current trends and behaviors, offering both scholars and newcomers a rich portrait of an unpredictable though formidable world power.Porter begins with China's social and political development from earliest times to the modern period. He concludes with the country today, then steps back to assess the events that have most determined China's 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, orthodoxy in ideology and law, political command structures, technological innovation, enterprise management, public policy and private goals, and the prospects for democracy.With personal insight and privileged perspective, Porter clarifies a number of myths and mysteries about modern China and evaluates the implications of its expansion in the balance of world power. He provides crucial context for the China dimension that has become so central to discussions of national and international policy.