China’s courage to restart its market economy in 1978 was – as we now know – also a response to a cunning question that reform architect Deng Xiaoping asked his Politburo at the end of 1978: „What do we really know about the world out there? How far have we distanced ourselves from it? What can we learn?“ Forty-five years later, Beijing’s current leadership no longer considers such curiosity about the outside world opportune. It lives in its echo chamber and demands that everyone align themselves with the superpower China. Anyone who mentions the start of the reforms in 1978 is censored.