Scholars argue that great powers must be technological leaders, and that autocracies, which suppress creativity and information flows, will stifle innovation. Many observers of China’s rise thus argued that it would be unable to compete technologically with the United States. Professor Lind’s book, Autocracy 2.0: How China’s Rise Reinvented Tyranny (Cornell University Press 2025), challenges this view by showing that China has become a global innovation leader. Professor Lind shows that China and other ‘smart authoritarians’ have adapted their tools of control to better compete in today’s globalized information age. The evolution of Autocracy 2.0 suggests that China (and other smart authoritarian regimes) will be more competitive than observers expected, which has powerful implications for the balance of power, the future of international order, and the global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism.

Jennifer Lind researches the international relations of East Asia and US foreign policy toward the region. She is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College and a fellow at Chatham House, London, and at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.