The US and China: Neither Friends Nor Rivals from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

As Washington prepares for a visit from Chinese President Hu Jintao this week, we take a look at what lies ahead in the shifting relationship between superpowers. Should we fear the "waking dragon"? We're joined by Gideon Rachman, chief foreign-affairs commentator for the Financial Times and author of "Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety," and Simon Tay, was an Asia Society 2009 Bernard Schwartz Fellow and is Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. He is also the author of "Asia Alone: The Dangerous Post-Crisis Divide from America." Listen to the podcast.

Red Plenty by Francis Spufford from Books news, reviews and author interviews | guardian.co.uk by Steven Rose

A book on Soviet utopianism prompts Steven Rose to wonder if the dream of a fair, prosperous society can ever be fulfilled. When I first visited Moscow, in what now seems a far-distant era, a giant red neon sign beamed Lenin's famous phrase "Socialism plus electrification equals communism" across the Moskva river. The slogan encapsulated several central aspects of communist thought. First, optimism for the future. Second, that science and technology were both by definition progressive forces but were impeded by capitalism; only under communism could they enable the building of a society of abundance for the many, not just the few.

Full book reviews like these, are books in and of themselves, and require a full reading on the proper site. See the Guardian piece here. Also, check out this BBC podcast, where Francis Spufford and Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times debate the comparison between the China and the USSR in the 60s and their influence on the Western economies. [Still trying to see if I can order Red Plenty for my Kindle from Asia.]