Over the past several months, Daniel Bell, professor of political theory at Tsinghua University, has raised eyebrows with some widely-circulated commentaries. In Christian Science Monitor he wrote “What America\'s Flawed Democracy Could Learn from China\'s One-party Rule” and in New York Times “A Confucian Constitution for China.” More recently he co-wrote “In Defense of How China Picks its Leaders” with Eric Li in Financial Times. 

In each case he’s been criticized for being an apologist and overstating how “meritocratic” China’s government really is. In today’s podcast Bell defends his works and discusses themes from the new book he edited entitled A Confucian Constitutional Order: How China’s Ancient Past Can Shape Its Political Future.

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