Former Washington Post Beijing Bureau chief Philip P. Pan sits down at TPM Cafe all this week to discuss his new book, Out Of Mao's Shadow, in which he argues that the battle lines have been drawn in the struggle for China's future:

On one side is the venal party-state, an entrenched elite fighting to preserve the country's authoritarian political system and its privileged place within it. On the other is a ragtag collection of lawyers, journalists, entrepreneurs, artists, hustlers, and dreamers striving to build a more tolerant, open and democratic China.

Joining in are Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's China Program, New York Times city reporter Jennifer 8. Lee, Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, former FCC chairman and information industries consultant Reed Hundt, and Ely Ratner, a UC Berkeley PhD candidate studying the effects of U.S. support for non-democratic regimes.