UNDERSTANDING CHINESE POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY - POLIDEMOS 17

More than a decade after Xi Jinping’s rise to power, China remains central yet often misunderstood in globaldebates. Too frequently reduced to polarized narratives or Western conceptual frameworks, its complexityescapes simplified explanations. This volume brings together young scholars from different disciplines to explorethe transformations reshaping China’s political, economic, social, legal, and international landscape. Throughanalyses ranging from the redefinition of “democracy” under Xi Jinping to demographic challenges, socialinequalities, legal reforms, and new international projections, the book provides fresh insights into the dynamicsof power and change in today’s China. In a world increasingly defined by interdependence, the essays collectedhere reject both fascination with the “Chinese model” and suspicion rooted in Eurocentrism, inviting readers tosee China as a dynamic system marked by internal and external tensions, historical adaptation, and globalinterconnection. Combining academic rigor with accessibility,Understanding Contemporary Chinaseeks to providesome tools for grasping how contemporary China is redefining itself and, as a result, influencing the global order.Knowing China–its ideas, institutions, and contradictions–is not merely an academic exercise, but aprerequisite for sustaining and cherishing meaningful dialogue and global cooperation.Asia Marcantoni (1996) is a young scholar at the University of Urbino. She obtained her PhD in GlobalStudies: Economy, Society, and Law in March 2025 with a thesis on contemporary Chinese political thought,adopting a Conceptual History approach, entitled:Understanding Democracy in Contemporary China: The “Whole-ProcessPeople’s Democracy” of Xi Jinping(Political Discourse, Debates, and New Challenges). She has attended severalspecialization schools on Chinese and Asian politics and political theory and has participated in various nationaland international conferences.Her research interests include Asianhistory and institutions, the history ofpolitical thought, global history, and anti-colonialthought. She has developed various studies of contemporarypolitical thought and political philosophy on China and East Asia and has published several articles inItalianjournals.She has been a visiting student at New York University, a visiting fellow at the Ash Centre forDemocratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School of Harvard University (academic year2023-2024), and a visiting scholar at Beijing Normal University.