The Gilded Cage

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The book explores China's economic transformation, highlighting the shift from labor-intensive manufacturing to a tech-driven development model under an increasingly authoritarian regime. Through extensive fieldwork and interviews, it examines the stark inequalities between "high-end" and "low-end" sectors and the state's use of technology for surveillance and control. The narrative contrasts China's rapid rise with America's Gilded Age, suggesting it resembles a gilded cage, where state power and tech capitalism foster rising inequality and social exclusion.