To the extent that my understanding of European current events is aided by shared culture and a much better coverage of history, even including many more modern events, I find my near-complete lack of understanding of Chinese culture is a serious impediment to my understanding of articles like this. My university history classes basically ended at the Boxer Rebellion, with a brief interlude into using the Great Leap Forward as a hit piece against Mao (which, to be fair, he seems to have deserved, but that&#x27;s all it was meant as. It wasn&#x27;t meant as history of China).<p>For example: isn&#x27;t China supposed to be Communist? How are there so many ludicrously rich people? Clearly, I&#x27;m missing some part of the equation in there that explains why I have this perception.<p>It&#x27;s vexing because I tend to want to &quot;fix&quot; problems in understanding as soon as I identify them, yet I have no idea how one would gain an accurate image of China from the outside, given how much <i>I&#x27;ve been told</i> they control information flow.