It has been difficult to obtain a coherent and sensible picture of China and its development. There were many exaggeratedly gloomy or optimistic scenarios in the past, and now positive reports of economic and trade growth seem counterweighed by negative ones of political repression. The scenes witnessed on television of Tiananmen Square in 1989 have remained a lasting and potent impression of China in many Westerner's memories. Subsequently, it has been a complex task to grasp a unifying sense of what China is. Are these images unreal? How can the contradictions be forced together into one single picture? This text seeks to answer these questions in a balanced way, without jargon or prejudice.