This weighty monograph offers a thoughtful assessment of one of globally raising China’s most profound political issues—democratization since the 1989 Tiananmen Incident.

Not exactly a “looking back” retrospective nor a typical commemorative work, this book harbors a more forward prospecting approach with 13 substantive chapters yielding informed analysis and insightful interpretations of various key issues. The core subjects range from legal foundation of Chinese democracy, middle-class politics, Internet based-democratization debates and pro-democratic mobilizations, civic society activism, to the external and international media’s inputs, democracy and China’s ethnic minorities; and PRC-Vatican interface.

This timely volume will be of considerable interest to scholars, journalists, and those keen to learn about contemporary China’s ideo-political transformation.