Book excerpt: The book discusses the development model of China which has now overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy. This remarkable economic achievement has not followed the Western world's favorite developmental tools — of freedom, democracy and a market driven economy, but rather China's unique model — of one-party authoritarian rule with a mixed economy. The Middle Kingdom's way of development has largely questioned the West's core values — freedom and democracy. The book argues that the model is based on the country's 3,000-year-old civilization, forged by the efforts, innovations, trial and error process of several recent generations, and guided by the Chinese Communist Party in the past 60 years.