How have Chinese thinkers viewed American democracy and federalism across more than a century of turbulent change? This book offers a fascinating exploration of Chinese perceptions of the US political system from the late Qing dynasty to the aftermath of Tiananmen and the rise of China as a global power.

Through the voices of remarkable yet overlooked intellectuals-from an imperial consul in San Francisco to the ideologue behind Xi Jinping's Chinese Dream-Brusadelli reveals how the American 'mirror' served alternately as inspiration and cautionary tale in China's ongoing struggle to define its own political order.