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Book Cover for: Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China, Jeremy L. Wallace

Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China

Jeremy L. Wallace

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A unique analysis of the numbers that came to define Chinese politics and how this quantification evolved over time.

For decades, a few numbers came to define Chinese politics-until those numbers did not count what mattered and what they counted did not measure up. Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts argues that the Chinese government adopted a system of limited, quantified vision in order to survive the disasters unleashed by Mao Zedong's ideological leadership. Jeremy Wallace explains how that system worked and analyzes how the problems that accumulated in its blind spots led Xi Jinping to take drastic action. Xi's neopolitical turn--aggressive anti-corruption campaigns, reassertion of party authority, and personalization of power--is an attempt fix the problems of the prior system, as well as a hedge against an inability to do so. The book argues that while of course dictators stay in power through coercion and cooptation, they also do so by convincing their populations and themselves of their right to rule. Quantification is one tool in this persuasive arsenal, but it comes with its own perils.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publish Date: Nov 8th, 2022
  • Pages: 288
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.35in - 6.20in - 0.78in - 0.93lb
  • EAN: 9780197627662
  • Categories: • International Relations - General• Comparative Politics• Asian - General

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About the Author

Jeremy L. Wallace is an associate professor of government at Cornell University, on sabbatical leave for 2021-22 at Georgetown's Mortara Center for International Studies. He studies authoritarian politics focusing on China, cities, statistics, and climate change. He recently published work on COVID-19 in APSR and on China's relationship with the international order in International Organization. He serves as an editor at The Monkey Cage and writes the China Lab newsletter.

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Jeremy Wallace
Jeremy Wallace
@jerometenk
2 years

Jeremy Wallace is a professor and researcher focused on China, authoritarian politics and climate.

*Book announcement* My new book--Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts--is available for pre-order. A few numbers came to define Chinese politics, until they did not count what mattered and what they counted didn't measure up. Short thread.

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Mentioner image for: Robert Amsterdam
Robert Amsterdam
@robertamsterdam
2 years

International lawyer at Amsterdam & Partners LLP @amsterdamllp. I also host a podcast called Departures; listen here: https://t.co/C2SDSYzJOa

Departures Podcast featuring Jeremy L. Wallace, author of ‘Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China’ https://t.co/49CyhFloXB

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Mentioner image for: Sino-NK
Sino-NK
@Sino_NK
2 years

A collective of Koreanists & Sinologists dedicated to analyzing the borderland dynamics, transnational ties, & history of relations between China & North Korea.

''Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China' argues that the Chinese government adopted a system of limited, quantified vision in order to survive the disasters unleashed by Mao Zedong's ideological leadership.' https://t.co/3u6fbSGhh0 https://t.co/S43g2P7ee5

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Praise for this book

"Jeremy Wallace's new book Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China is a tour de force of scholarship on the political development of the People's Republic of China (PRC), particularly in the post-Mao era...the book is very enjoyable to read and remains accessible without compromising on theoretical depth or empirical richness." -- Yan Xiaojun, The University of Hong Kong, The China Quarterly

"Professor Wallace offers readers a fascinating volume on how quantification and governance have gone hand in hand in China and their discontents. This is a unique perspective on and reinterpretation of China's political economy in recent decades." --Dali L. Yang, William C. Reavis Professor of Political Science, The University of Chicago

"In this important book, Jeremy Wallace shows why the center in China has limited its vision to a few quantifiable indicators, such as GDP, investment, and fiscal revenue. This focus has led to a failure to see local problems like protests, debt, and pollution. Wallace's arguments speak to key debates in the study of authoritarian politics." --Martin K. Dimitrov, Professor of Political Science, Tulane University

"This is an excellent book about the political economy of China and an insightful study of an authoritarian system." -- Choice

"Wallace's engaging book provides both theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of Chinese politics, autocracy, and governance. The book offers a thorough, but highly readable, analysis that will benefit students and scholars alike." -- Kerry Ratigan, Pacific A!airs: Volume 97

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