“Writing about China and the Chinese is a perilous exercise,” indicates Jean-François Lépine in the book’s epilogue. The anxieties of my Chinese teacher. And for good reason ! To get around distrust and prejudice, the man who was a journalist in Beijing in the early 1980s, then director, from 2017 to 2021, of representations of Quebec in the Middle Kingdom, relies on nuance, rigor and more 40 years of intimate and political knowledge to document the evolution, phenomenal progress and security excesses of an elusive country. In this abundant and accessible essay, the former diplomat draws on testimonies collected during his numerous stays in China to expose the wealth, intelligence and humanity of a people who, on the march towards the summit of its power, seeks to take back the keys to its destiny in hand. An instructive and relevant work, which nevertheless leaves unanswered fundamental questions about the changes that the world must consider to survive its own thirst for progress.
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