This book was picked as one of the Financial Times’ best books of 2015. In 2016 the paperback version was published with a new preface in which Bell rebutted critics of his 2015 book.
Bell’s argument is that the west is irrational in condemning China’s political model. He contends that there are merits in political meritocracy whereby a top leader is chosen based on merits at every step of his career.
He contrasts that with the Western democracy concept of one man one vote. He argued this can lead to the wrong leader being elected based purely on populist appeal. It is also heavily dependent on a candidate having hundreds of millions of campaign funding.
It is ironic that this prophecy came into fruition with the subsequent election of Trump as US President in 2017.