Former fellow Cheng Li (China, 1993-95) examines the leading role Shanghai has played in the development of a new Chinese cosmopolitan culture in his latest book Middle Class Shanghai, Reshaping US-China Engagement, published by the Brookings Institution Press in May.
The United States should not caricature China as a monolithic communist apparatus, he writes, but build on the deep cultural and educational exchanges that have bound the two countries for decades. “US policymakers should neither underestimate the role and strength of the Chinese middle class, nor ostracize or alienate this force with policies that push it toward jingoistic nationalism to the detriment of both countries and the global community,” Brookings Press summarizes the book as saying on its website.
Cheng is director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is also a director of the National Committee on US-China Relations. He focuses on the transformation of political leaders, generational change, the middle class and technological development in China.
Read more about Middle Class Shanghai here.
Top picture: Shanghai (Pyzhou, Wikimedia Commons)
