I haven’t had opportunity to do a book review in this column for many months, but one title recently caught my eye while I strolled through my local bookstore: Understanding China, by John Bryan Starr. (Hill & Wang, 448 pps., $17.95) What this says about my browsing habits, we’ll leave unspoken—but anyone looking for a better grasp of why China behaves the way it does should start reading immediately.
