Some needed context

Jonathan Mirsky writes,

[Susan Greenhalgh, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine] herself refers to the years from 1980-93 as a time of "human and natural catastrophe," of "bad governance, even by the regime's own standards, which have consistently rejected the use of what in party-speak is called 'coercion and commandism.'"

In fact, on p. 56 she writes,

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Leninist birth planners had tried to operate the population program on a natural science model.... The result was a human and political catastrophe.

And on p. 86,

population management was a prime example of bad governance....

He makes it sound as if she's criticizing Chinese policies in general, whereas she's criticizing population policies.