As a non-expert in urban theory, I can hardly presume to marshal a surefooted command of postmodern and postcolonial analysis in critiquing Michael Dutton’s elaborate theoretical edifice. One thing, however, is certain: Beijing Time is a terrible read. Since misery loves company, perhaps I should inflict a bit of the prose upon our readers.

The short story In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (the basis of Akira Kurosawa’s movie Rashomon) tells the tale of a murder through three conflicting accounts of the crime, one told by the deceased victim, one by the victim’s wife and the third by the accused criminal. Each account is very different and the reader can easily see the ways each narrator attempts to cast him or herself in a certain light. But each is also consistent with corroborating stories and the physical evidence at the scene of the crime. At the end of the story, one is left with the hopeless task of cobbling together some semblance of truth from the three narratives.

While the old cliché that one can never judge a book by its cover holds true, it is occasionally possible to make some accurate judgements based on how far apart the book’s covers are. In the case of Chitrita Banerji’s Eating India: Exploring a Nation’s Cuisine, the covers are separated by 329 pages – which either indicates that the sheer ambition of this project will have proved foolhardy, or that the book is printed in microscopic print.

Mr. Khanna adopts a sober tone in this work, maintaining steadfast neutrality in analyzing the astonishing growth of the two countries, which will surely do much to reshape the way the world looks in the coming years. Besides neutrality, Mr. Khanna combines limpid prose and a sound evidence-based approach to make the book a refreshing alternative to many arcane, elliptical academic tracts on the subject.

During the present crisis in Burma, pro-democracy activists and others have made appeals to the United Nations, the United States, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to intervene. Japan is almost totally absent, putting aside the diplomatic demarches over the murder of photojournalist Kenji Nagai. That is quite remarkable considering that Burma once was one of Japans closest development partners in Southeast Asia. But it was a very peculiar relationship. Until the last round of upheavals in 1988, prosperous and democratic Japan poured massive amounts of development aid into a grossly mismanaged, authoritarian socialist state. The regime, which was set up when General Ne Win seized power in 1962, would most likely have collapsed without Japanese aid. When Ne Win, the man who took Burma from prosperity to poverty, died in December 2002, he was almost forgotten"and so was most of Japans influence in Burma.

China watchers often describe the battles in elite Chinese politics as a struggle between reformist and conservative camps. The reformist politicians favor more openness"greater democracy, more foreign investment"and conservative Communist Party stalwarts favor turning back the growing private sector and closing China off from influence of growing trade and openness. That simple framework led to the hopes that greeted Hu Jintaos elevation to the countrys top post of Communist Party secretary-general in 2002. Hu was depicted as the leader of a new generation of cadres ready to accelerate the liberalization of Chinas controls on media, spur the private sector and usher in wide foreign access to Chinas vast markets.

Is China proving that developing countries are better off under an authoritarian regime that focuses on developing the economy, rather than under a democratic regime that gives emphasis to political participation? And if the enjoyment of human rights improves with economic prosperity, isnt it wiser to restrict them in the short term and allow them only once income levels take off?

The argument of this well-researched and useful volume is that since the middle of the last decade, Beijings foreign and security policy have shifted away from previous unilateralism toward cooperation, consultation and the playing of a responsible and constructive role with respect to areas ranging from regional security to nuclear proliferation.

When I first traveled in India 10 years ago the country seemed to me an exotic land of ubiquitous monkeys and holy men. Last year when I arrived in Delhi I was immediately surprised"the Indira Gandhi airport was free from hawkers and self-appointed luggage men who, regardless of my wish, used to vie for my suitcases. On the way from the airport to Gurgaon, a high-tech enclave on the outskirts of Delhi, one couldnt help noticing a proliferation of construction sites, glitzy malls, shiny offices of multinational corporations and five-star hotels. The city center had more lush greenery and less soot as its auto rickshaws began switching to natural gas a few years ago. Delhis state-of-the-art metro system was shockingly clean and efficient, and its Apollo-style clinics could compete with European hospitals.