The collection begins with a moving meditation on the personal tragedies of the massacre, and especially on the losses suffered by the "Tiananmen Mothers" group. Other essays range more widely, exploring the historical origins of China's current political system, and the pre-conditions required to bring about change. Time and again, his analysis focuses on the Communist Party's long-term monopoly of power, on the commonalities of diverse generations of Communist leaders, and on the need to develop non-violent forms of resistance through expanding civil society. He debates the politics of privatisation, calling for an overhaul of land ownership to diminish Party control. In another piece, he avers that Han China's conflict with Tibet is not ethnic, but political: a legacy of the totalitarian system of government. Along the way, he discusses also China's recent spike in angry patriotism, and what he sees as an unseemly obsession with winning gold medals.