book description

China is hot.  The world sees a glorious future for this country, roughly five times more populous than the United States.   At some point in the next two decades, the economy of the People’s Republic will be the largest in the world.  If this century belongs to any nation, it is China. 

At least that is the consensus opinion.  Peer beneath the veneer of modernization, however, the symptoms of trouble come into view.  Never has China been so corrupt, its environment so degraded, its liabilities so large.  Nonetheless, its leaders are once again invoking Marx and Mao to hang on to power, and so it is becoming evident that the Communist Party has taken the country about as far as it can go within the confines of the existing system.  

As the country grows more prosperous, it becomes even more unstable.  The critical issue is time, and it’s running out.  Coming Collapse argues that the Communist Party will not be running China by the end of this decade.

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Gordon Chang takes us on a vividly observed voyage behind the scenes of China's so-called economic miracle, where it turns out that institutions are shaky, relationships corrupt, and success precarious.  Chinese society is seething with unrest, and the ruling party is split. Chang has lived and done business in China for years.  He is not afraid of making bold judgments.  When he warns that China's two centuries of troubles are still not over, we had better take notice.
----------Andrew J. Nathan, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University;

co-editor, The Tiananmen Papers


A sobering look at how the unique Chinese experiment of market reforms under one-party dictatorship could go wrong. The author has combined first-hand experience with painstaking research.  The often gloomy picture of the violent clashes between the forces of change and those of reaction is relieved by lively anecdotes and witty storytelling.  A tour de force not to be missed.
----------Willy Wo-Lap Lam, author of The Era of Jiang Zemin


Damning data and persuasive arguments that should set some Communist knees a-knocking.

Kirkus

 

A compelling account of the rot in China's institutions and the forces at work to end the

Communist Party's monopoly on power.


James A. Dorn, Cato Institute, Washington D.C.,
co-editor of China's Future: Constructive Partner or Emerging Threat?

© 2005 Gordon G. Chang