Reddit reviews The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
A little dated at this point, but still the best introduction I've read: https://smile.amazon.com/Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist-Rulers/dp/0061708771/
>I rather think that making promises of this nature is a formality. The real friction will come when a culture (communist China) used to making casual threats of violence in order to get its way meets a culture (Murica, close enough) where bribery is the usual practice.
I think you need to read this book.
Please stop talking about Chinese political/business culture until you are at least half way through this excellent book. It includes basic org. charts of the Chinese gov't, history, etc.
Thank you.
Atrophy and Adaptation is good, but very academic.
This is pretty much the best book. Informative and readable.
http://www.amazon.com/Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist-Rulers/dp/0061708771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300422937&sr=8-1
> Can you read Chinese? If not here is the best recent reference of political intrigue within the CCP.
No, but I'm learning. I read Zhao Ziyang's book - Prisoner of the State.
> http://www.amazon.com/Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist-Rulers/dp/0061708771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302713651&sr=8-1
Hmm, his impression of the PRC is the same as mine
> Starred Review. McGregor, a journalist at the Financial Times, begins his revelatory and scrupulously reported book with a provocative comparison between China™s Communist Party and the Vatican for their shared cultures of secrecy, pervasive influence, and impenetrability. The author pulls back the curtain on the Party to consider its influence over the industrial economy, military, and local governments. McGregor describes a system operating on a Leninist blueprint and deeply at odds with Western standards of management and transparency. Corruption and the tension between decentralization and national control are recurring themes--and are highlighted in the Party's handling of the disturbing Sanlu case, in which thousands of babies were poisoned by contaminated milk powder. McGregor makes a clear and convincing case that the 1989 backlash against the Party, inexorable globalization, and technological innovations in communication have made it incumbent on the Party to evolve, and this smart, authoritative book provides valuable insight into how it has--and has not--met the challenge.
Couldn't have put it better on the problems of the PRC model, though I'm more sceptical it is reformable
> I really think you and everyone else who characterizes China as an expansionist power are completely ignoring the big picture.
Actually I don't go for a characterisation that is as simplistic as that. The PRC could evolve in a fairly benign way to a more liberal society able to compromise with its neighbours. However I don't believe that it is inevitable that will happen. I definitely don't believe that planet wide peace and Liberal Democracy is some sort of pre destined "End of History" along the lines of Fukuyama. It would be good if that were true and it is something to aim for not something we can count on.
I think that the PRC - like the USSR - is essentially enigmatic. The best way to deal with it is to contain it militarily to discourage adventurism until it liberalizes. Having said that I'd say the odds currently favour China liberalizing over turning into some metastasising tyranny like Japan and Germany did in the 30's. But if the PRC thought it could get away with expansionism I suspect that sooner or later leaders will be selected who will pursue that expansionism aggressively.
Even liberalisation is not a panacea - in many ways it opens up even more danger. Imagine in the economy collapsed and with it the CCP's legitimacy and a Fenqing party even more committed to reversing historic humiliations took over and restores a one party system. I.e. China could go from a predictable tyranny to anarchy and to a very unpredictable tyranny rather along the lines Germany did.
In an odd sort of way a Brezhnev-esque ossification of the system with the CCP firmly in control is actually a better bet for China's neighbours and rivals than liberalisation. Brezhnev may have invaded Afghanistan but he sure as hell wasn't going to invade Western Europe. In fact you probably need a fresh and virulent new tyranny to replace the CCP for China to turn expansionist.
Still that could happen - and I think it is in everyone's interests if any Chinese government knows that they will lose badly if they try to pick a fight with another country.