Why CCP Rule Can Never Lead to Civil Society in China: Stanford Economist

A Chinese scholar at Stanford talks about the totalitarian nature of the CCP, and how it robs China of a civil society, even with economic development.

A Chinese paramilitary policeman guards at Tiananmen Square in China on July 4, 2013. Feng Li/Getty Images

Even today, economist Xu Chenggang still credits the decade he spent on a farm during China’s Cultural Revolution as the most impactful period of his life.

The farm in northeast China, 20 miles from the former Soviet Union, was by no means the only source of learning for the scholar.