Jiwei Ci is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Moral China in the Age of Reform, The Two Faces of Justice (Harvard), and Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution: From Utopianism to Hedonism. He has held research fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the National Humanities Center, and the Stanford Humanities Center.
Ci offers shrewd insights into the contradictions in the party's ideology, the mentality of China's middle class, and the various ways the party sustains its legitimacy.--Andrew J. Nathan Foreign Affairs (03/01/2020) An elaborate but cogent argument about how the CCP will only overcome its illegitimacy, along with other tears in the national fabric, by choosing to usher in political democracy.--Martin Witte Asian Review of Books (02/16/2020) Jiwei Ci's ambitious book is intended as a practical political argument, addressed as a citizen of China to the incumbent leadership of its governing Communist Party. It is a work of intense seriousness, real intellectual scruple, and, under current circumstances, great political courage.--John Dunn, author of Breaking Democracy's Spell Jiwei Ci's account of the prospects of Chinese democracy is stimulating, deeply researched, and humanely argued. A passionate argument in favor of a more democratic China, it engages seriously with the question of what a Chinese, rather than abstract, democracy might look like, making original and nuanced arguments about how a party-state might genuinely pluralize. His reflections on Hong Kong are particularly thoughtful in light of the current turmoil. A powerful contribution to one of the most acute debates in geopolitics today.--Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally A complex, fascinating book that will have a major impact not only for readers interested in China, but also for anyone working on authoritarian transitions and democratic theory. I find Ci's prudential rather than normative argument on the need for democracy in China persuasive, if one thinks in terms of the Chinese Communist Party moving in a more democratic direction.--Tony Saich, author of Governance and Politics of China