Joshua Eisenman Knihy

The book challenges the prevailing narrative about China's commune system, presenting evidence that it was not merely a failed social experiment. Through previously inaccessible data, it argues that the commune modernized agriculture, boosted productivity, and set the stage for China's subsequent rapid economic growth under Deng Xiaoping. This re-evaluation offers a new perspective on the significance of the commune system in China's development trajectory.

This book examines the full scope of contemporary political and security relations between China and Africa. Drawing on two decades of systematic data and hundreds of surveys and in-person interviews, David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman shed new light on the state of China-Africa relations today and consider what the future may hold.