China is living through interesting times right now, to borrow an apocryphal idiom. After almost three years of draconian zero-Covid policies, we have witnessed the first cross-city street protests against central government policy since Tiananmen in 1989, followed by a sudden lifting of restrictions, and now the inevitable wave of Covid infections. Books dance to a slower beat than the news cycle, but they do provide deeper context to help answer the critical question: how did we get to where we are? That’s why at the top of our list this month is an assured history of the post-Mao years up until the start of the Xi era, which argues that lack of political reform was a defining feature of this period of major economic reform. Another book, published on the same day, posits that the roots of market reform were infected with Maoist illiberalism to begin with. Also on the roster: more on Sino-U.S. clashes, media and information campaigns, and a sprinkling of ancient myth to remind u