How China Is Teaching Authoritarians to Innovate

China’s rise is challenging one of liberal democracy’s oldest assumptions: Freedom fuels innovation and control kills it. The world’s second-largest economy has managed to achieve technological progress, while retaining political authority. It’s a seductive formula that other nations are looking to emulate.

That idea sits at the heart of a new book by Jennifer Lind, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College. In Autocracy 2.0: How China’s Rise Reinvented Tyranny, she argues that China’s model of growth — what she calls smart authoritarianism — is gaining global appeal because it delivers the benefits of modernization while maintaining the ability to control its citizens. For Washington and its allies, that’s a troubling combination.