In Bad Elements, Ian Buruma goes behind conventional news stories of economic growth, megacities, and the Olympic Games, to see today's China through the stories of its dissidents: ordinary, brave people who oppose a regime that uses repression in the name of social order. He travels through the US, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the people's Repunlic, to tell the stories of the rebels who dare to stand up to their rulers. From the exiles of Tiananmen to the hidden Christians of rural China, he brings alive the human dimension to their struggles and reveals the world's most secretive superpower through the eyes of its opponents.