ISBN: 978-0007230680. Buy it on Amazon.co.uk

We know all about the statistics of China's rise – dizzying growth rates, vast currency reserves, new cities built every week. But have heard very little about China as a powerhouse of ideas about politics, economics and world order. Mark Leonard introduces us to the thinkers shaping China's future, and opens up a hidden world of intellectual debate that could change our world. Leonard reveals a Chinese model of Globalisation that could re-shape the face of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. He shows how experiments with focus groups and opinion polls are changing China from a traditional authoritarian state to a new 'deliberative dictatorship'. And he reveals how Beijing hopes to use a "China Dream" to challenge America's military power? What does China Think? charts the development of a Chinese worldview and portrays the factions battling for influence:

• The "New Left" who want a gentler form of capitalism with a social safety net that could reduce inequality and protect the environment.
• The "New Right" who think that freedom will only come when the public sector is dismantled and sold off, and a new, politically active "propertied class" emerges.
• The "Neo-Comms", cousins of American neo-cons, want to use military modernisation, cultural diplomacy and international law to assert China's power in the world.

Leonard predicts a world in which we are as interested in the Chinese "Neo-Comms" plans for Asia as we were in the "Neo-Cons" attempts to reshape the Middle East; where the political struggle in the Communist Party is as vital as the battle between Hillary Clinton and John McCain; and where protesters outside the World Bank will complain as much about the "Beijing Consensus" as the "Washington Consensus".