Ely Ratner returns from a walk in Tiananmen Square to argue for a more empathetic and nuanced view of China in this week's Book Club.

In case you missed it, the esteemed Dean Baker of The American Prospect's Beat the Press joined the Coffee House today.

His first contribution: Deflating the Housing Bubble.

Nathan Newman and M.J. Rosenberg respond to the Supreme Court's decision to strike down race-based assignment policies used to desegregate schools.

Michael Bérubé has the inside story of a Giuliani family road trip. Highlight: Judith Nathan attacked by ferrets.

T. A. Frank in the Book Club wonders: is China's soft power hell for the hawks?

Steve Clemons:

If the Vice President thinks that there is no authority to which he reports, then he has committed a high crime against this nation and its democracy.

Daniel Levy on Aid for Israel: Put a Condom on it.

This week's Book Club on China's Charm Offensive is going strong with 13 posts so far from a distinguished group of scholars.

For those looking to catch up on the debate so far, we've put together a quick summary here.

In case you missed it, Todd Gitlin started rounding up a posse last night to support Rahm Emanuel's effort to cut off funds to Vice President Cheney unless he stops making absurd constitutional claims.

Get your hat and lasso and saddle up!

While America is bogged down in Iraq, China's been quietly winning friends and influencing people.

This week at TPMCafe's Book Club, we're discussing Josh Kurlantzick's Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World. Kurlantzick argues that "China savvily has amassed significant “soft power” around the world through aid, formal diplomacy, public diplomacy, investment, and other tools" and is going to start to use it. We ignore this geopolitical shift, according to Kurlantzick, at our own peril.

Debating China's quiet rise to power will be Naazneen Barma, Mauro De Lorenzo, Ely Ratner, Devin Stewart, John Feffer, Reed Hundt, and Daniel Drezner.

Welcome to the TPMCafe Book Club! This is where we regularly invite authors to come and discuss their most recent works with readers and invited commentators.

This week we'll be discussing Josh Kurlantzick's Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World.

In the book, Kurlantzick argues that China has been quietly building it's international prestige by building relationships around the world with soft power. He argues that unless this "charm offensive" is noted and responded to, China will become an international power to rival the U.S. in relative short order.

Joining the conversation will be Naazneen Barma, Mauro De Lorenzo, Ely Ratner, Devin Stewart, John Feffer, Reed Hundt, Daniel Drezner, and Dan Blumenthal.

Past Book Club authors include Thomas Frank, Anthony Shadid, Larry Diamond, George Packer, Ivo Daalder/James Lindsay, Robert Dreyfuss, Chris Mooney, Gene Sperling, Gershom Gorenberg, Peter Beinart, Kevin Phillips, Sidney Blumenthal, Reed Hundt, Anne-Marie Slaughter, John Ikenberry, Jonathan Cohn, Daniel Gross, Steven Cook, and Chris Hayes.

-ahg