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One is tempted sometimes to think of 21st Century China as a machine for generating wealth and perpetuating the rule of the Chinese Communist Party while propagating “socialism with Chinese characteristics” or if you prefer, social controls. This is not to say that the Chinese don’t appreciate the utility of a market economy. But one could say that reform in China has led only to a reversion to the historical norm. The Mandate of Heaven applies equally to the CCP as it once did to the Emperors: the Emperor may now be called the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China but the means of rule and social control remain broadly the same: an Emperor served by a devout and well-educated po