 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com From an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and one of the leading China correspondents of his generation comes an eloquent and vivid chronicle of the world's most successful authoritarian state -- a nation undergoing a remarkable transformation. Philip P. Pan's groundbreaking book takes us inside the dramatic battle for China's soul and into the lives of individuals struggling to come to terms with their nation's past -- the turmoil and trauma of Mao's rule -- and to take control of its future. Capitalism has brought prosperity and global respect to China, but the Communist government continues to resist the demands of its people for political freedom. Pan, who reported in China for the Post for seven years and speaks fluent Chinese, eluded the police and succeeded in going where few Western journalists have dared. From the rusting factories in the industrial northeast to a tabloid newsroom in the booming south, from a small-town courtroom to the plush offices of the nation's wealthiest tycoons, he tells the gripping stories of ordinary men and women fighting for political change. An elderly surgeon exposes the government's cover-up of the SARS epidemic. A filmmaker investigates the execution of a young woman during the Cultural Revolution. A blind man is jailed for leading a crusade against forced abortions carried out under the one-child policy. The young people who filled Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 saw their hopes for a democratic China crushed in a massacre, but Pan reveals that as older, more pragmatic adults, many continue to push for justice in different ways. They are survivors whose families endured one of the world's deadliest famines during the Great Leap Forward, whose idealism was exploited during the madness of the Cultural Revolution, and whose values have been tested by the booming economy and the rush to get rich. Average Customer Rating:  
Interesting, poorly organized.
| Customer Rating: | I was very anxious to read this book, as I have a deep interest in China.
The author has a knowledgeable background, and excellent material.
I was dissappointed that he did not put it together in a more organized manner, and make reading it more enjoyable.
I think many people that could profit from knowing this factual information........(everyone in our country) will find it far too boring to plow thru.
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China no different than America
| Customer Rating: | | You have 1320M people in China, and 300M in the USA. In China the vast majority of the GNP is government owned or operated, while in the USA about 35% is. In any large country you will get isolated instances of government corruption. Now ask yourself this: how is China's brutality different from the USA's? Read the book "Property Rights in 21st Century America" (Cato) to see how government agencies took land from Americans without just compensation--and ruined many. Read the numerous books on IRS heavy handed tax enforcement. Read the numerous books on USA curtailing of liberties in the guise of the Patriot Act. China = USA. Perhaps this explains why the two countries are coming together? Birds of a feather, flock together. No I have not read this book--no need to--I am too busy reading about US excesses. |
An Infinity of Abuses
| Customer Rating: | China's rapid economic growth and the resulting improvement in millions' living standards are impressive, even when achieved at the hopefully temporary cost of massive environmental degradation. Pan, however, reveals that there are other major, though hidden, costs - all involving various abuses of the Chinese people. Further, it is easy to imagine that if China's only leadership were less paranoid and had less of an authoritarian history these abuses could be substantially reduced without hurting its economic growth.
Pan first takes readers through China's troubled 20th century under Mao, starting with the 1957 "Hundred Flowers Movement" to encourage what he thought would be mild criticism. Instead, the surge of vitriolic responses startled him and Mao reversed course, limiting debate and punishing those who spoke out. More than one-half million were shipped off to labor camps or exiled to work in the countryside.
However, the Hundred Flowers Movement pales in comparison with Mao's "Great Leap Forward" that began in 1958. Absurdly ambitious targets were set - eg. overtake the U.S. in steel production within 15 years. Millions were diverted from the fields, many to work on worthless backyard furnaces in which they were supposed to turn all their metal belongings into steel. The resulting agricultural shortages led to 30-50 million starving to death.
Another 1-2 million died in the Cultural Revolution that began May, 1966 - supposedly purging capitalist representatives that had infiltrated all levels of society.
Rather than temper China's leadership, however, these experiences under Mao have simply been largely erased from memory through rewriting published accounts to blame others and make the government look good; those writing contrary information risk long prison terms.
Pan then takes readers through an overview of abuses, starting with the estimated 10-40,000 coal miners killed/year (about 800X the U.S. death rate), prohibitions against unions and strikes, managers conspiring with officials to force factories into bankruptcy and pick up state assets at fire-sale prices. Then there's the arbitrary and very low compensation offered homeowners in the way of developers' projects (protesters risk being jailed or given nothing), excessive taxes levied against rural residents in some areas, the SARS epidemic becoming unleashed because state secrecy prevented hospitals from recognizing the need for isolation, and the arbitrary jailing and beatings of citizens - often for local government profit via extortion.
Courageous citizens fight back in each instance, and sometimes win partial victories. But most Chinese are kept in the dark via government control of the media, and nobody gets away Scot-free - bureaucrats always get their revenge. We saw this again when the government suppressed protests against poor school construction exposed in the recent Chinese earthquake tragedy.
China has yet to escape Mao's shadow. |
Honest, but lacks perspective
| Customer Rating: | China is a country without modern parallel. With 1.3 billion people, recent history of tremendous economic failure under Mao, and economic development over the last 20 years that is unmatched in the history of the world, this is a country of extremes. Philip Pan shows us only one side of the story. The China Pan describes is an endless plain of despair and discontent, with hardship and injustice for the masses and corruption based wealth for the few.
The stories Pan tells are all true. The stories are well documented. They are told with insight and perspective from both sides. Never the less, do not believe that reading this book will give you a fair perspective on the full spectrum of modern China.
Other recent books on China may have been unfairly focused on the economic growth that has helped so many in China. The other books may be countered by this book, which I believe unfairly focuses on the turmoil and misfortune that has followed the rapid economic change. There is truth in both stories, but those who truly understand China find the reality of the situation somewhere in between. Without a doubt, this is an important book, but do NOT let this be the only book you read about China. It's far too one-sided.
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Compelling snapshot of a closely-controlled society ...
| Customer Rating: | | Interesting insight into the current Chinese government's power over their peoples. Compelling stories about some of the dissidents involved in the Tiananmen Square uprising and the country's continued crackdown on their citizens. Interesting read on how Western capitalism, though it appears only materially, has lulled the Chinese people into acceptance of their government's stronghold over this nation. |
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