Chinese journalist and intellectual Xu Zhiyuan paints a portrait of the world's second-largest economy via a thoughtful and wide-ranging series of mini essays on contemporary Chinese society.

In PAPER TIGER the Chinese journalist and intellectual Xu Zhiyuan paints a portrait of the world's second-largest economy via a thoughtful and wide-ranging series of mini essays on contemporary Chinese society. Xu Zhiyuan describes the many stages upon which China's great transformation is taking place, from Beijing's Silicon district to a cruise down the Three Gorges; he profiles China's dissidents, including Liu Xiaobo, Ai Weiwei and Chen Guangcheng; and explores lesser-known stories of scandals that rocked China but which most people outside that country did not hear about – and which shed troubling light on China's dark heart. Xu Zhiyuan understands his homeland in a way no foreign correspondent ever could. PAPER TIGER is a unique insider's view of China that is measured and brave, ambitious in scope and deeply personal.

"[Xu] does everyone interested in China a valuable service. Great political and moral questions loom, and it is not just "hostile foreign forces" asking them. As Xu notes: "History always exceeds our expectations." I suspect that in Paper Tiger he has published a more optimistic volume than he realizes" - Financial Times

"Compelling and important... it is a powerful account'" - Sunday Telegraph

"Identifies the consequences of an authoritarian state struggling to control a society developing at a breakneck speed... Xu sounds a warning about the new leader who, he says, believes that "China will become a great power only once all of its citizens believe the same thing"'" - Daily Telegraph

"This is a book that will most definitely be contending for 2016's best title... With remarkable clarity, Xu serves an almost sublime invective, with a grace and composure that almost contradicts the strength of the criticism and quiet outrage that he enacts'" - Bleg.jigokuki.org

"A young journalist of considerable acumen and courage, Xu writes of the discontents and dreams of the everyday China" - TLS