ChinaModern China presents a dual image: a society transforming itself through economic development and infrastructure investment that aspires to global leadership; and the world's largest and oldest bureaucratic state, with multiple traditions in its cultural, economic, and political life. The modern society and state that is emerging in China will bear the indelible imprint of China's historical experience, of its patterns of philosophy and religion, and of its social and political thought and practice. Understanding China in the 21st century is inseparable from understanding China’s history as a great world civilization.
