The cultural foundations of Chinese policy-making are a troublesome set of contradictions that many Sinologists regularly refer to but rarely grasp. This shaky bedrock often gives rise to analyses weakened by discrepancies that include passing references to the influence of both “harmonious” Confucianism and violent, realist Legalism. Peter Kien-hong Yu presents an analytical framework which attempts to address this challenge and, in turn, accurately and reliably “decode” and “decipher” Chinese political behaviour and all its contradictions. Yu's approach presupposes that dialectical, or dualistic, thinking, which he describes as a tense struggle between opposing ideas and the subsequent creation of an operational concept that falls between the two extremes – the zhongdao (middle road) – is prevalent among contemporary Chinese and can be effectively modelled. Yu defends this presumption by spinning a lengthy, meandering yarn of anecdotes, and is confident enough of his scholarship to make the bumptious declaration that “Sinology and Bicoastal Chinese Studies are dead; long live the Dialectical Study of (Communist) China!”