Lononaut

Michael Sheridan appeared in Bangkok to promote his book, The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China (2024). I couldn’t get past the opening pages, in which Sheridan proclaims Xi as “the ruler of a modern country but... a man whose mind is very, very old.” It may be fashionable for Western journalists to be pro-democracy and therefore anti-monarchy, but when they conflate China’s “emperor” with a system of “totalitarian control,” unique insights into China probably won’t be forthcoming. Unsurprisingly, Sheridan’s interview was dull and predictable. He called Russia’s Putin a “gangster” in charge of a “mafia state.” He claimed people are in jail in China for mailing or sending copies of newspaper articles . He praised Xi Jinping’s first wife, Ke Lingling, as “elegant,” a rare compliment perhaps only because of the short marriage. Without irony, and without mentioning the United States, Sheridan indicated Xi is appalled at the depths of corruption in his country, but is using the cor...