Roderick MacFarquhar is Chair of the government department and Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University. In previous personae, he has been a journalist, a TV commentator, and a Member of Parliament. He recently completed the third volume of his trilogy, and is working on a book on the Cultural Revolution.

• The key to dealing with China is to know the details.
• Before we deal with China, we have to know what China is.
• China is two things:
  • China is a great, highly populous country with a great and ancient civilization, possessing the longest, continuous political history anywhere on the globe.
  • The other China is the People's Republic of China.