Party of one The rise of Xi Jinping and China's superpower future

Chun Han Wong

Book - 2023

"Party of One shatters the many myths and caricatures that shroud one of the world's most secretive political organizations and its leader. Many observers misread Xi during his early years in power, projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness, rule of law, and pro-market economics. Having masked his beliefs while climbing the party hierarchy, Xi has centralized decision-making powers, encouraged a cult of personality around himself, and moved toward indefinite rule by scrapping presidential term limits-stirring fears of a return to a Mao-style dictatorship. Today, the party of Xi favors political zeal over technical expertise, trumpets its faith in Marxism, and proclaims its reach into every... corner of Chinese society with Xi portraits and hammer-and-sickle logos. Under Xi, China has challenged Western preeminence in global affairs and cast its authoritarian system as a model of governance worthy of international emulation. As a China reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Chun Han Wong has chronicled Xi Jinping's hard-line strategy for crushing dissent against his strongman rule, his political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and his increasingly coercive efforts to reel in the island democracy of Taiwan, as well as the domestic and diplomatic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. When the Chinese government refused to renew Wong's press credentials and forced him to leave mainland China in 2019, he moved to Hong Kong to continue covering Chinese politics and its autocratic turn under Xi. Now, Wong has drawn on his years of firsthand reporting across China-including conversations with party insiders, insights from scholars and diplomats, and analyses of official speeches and documents-to create a lucid and historically rooted account of China's leader and how he inspires fear and fervor in his party, his nation, and beyond"--

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
New York : Avid Reader Press 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
Chun Han Wong (author)
Edition
First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition
Physical Description
xvi, 395 pages : illustration, map ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781982185732
  • Map of the People's Republic of China
  • Top Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party
  • Author's Note
  • Introduction-Power to the Party
  • 1. Ascendant Xi-The Party Maketh the Man
  • 2. Gripping Iron and Leaving Marks-The Party Cleanses Itself
  • 3. Law Is Order-The Party Writes the Rules
  • 4. Caging the Economy-The Party Gets Back to Business
  • 5. Grasping the Pen Shaft-The Party Tells Its Stories
  • 6. All Under Heaven-The Party Unites the Nation
  • 7. Wolf Warriors Howling-The Party Remakes the World
  • 8. One Man's Fate-The Party After Xi
  • Afterword
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A respected journalist combines history, headlines, and personal reflections in a careful analysis of China's leader-for-life. As the unquestioned leader of the world's most-populous nation, Xi Jinping (b. 1953) may be the most powerful person on the planet. However, as is often the case in China, separating facts from myths is a difficult process. Wong, who covered China for the Wall Street Journal since 2014, is a good person to accept the challenge, and his critical biography synthesizes a huge body of research. Wong tracks through Xi's formative period, including several years of exile to a hardscrabble rural province during the Cultural Revolution, and his slow climb through local politics toward the top. With a series of sponsors and mentors, he made a name for himself as a supercommitted party man, and in the post-Deng era he became the figure most likely to reassert central control and claim a dominant position for China on the global stage. Uniquely, once he became the country's leader, he integrated the three crucial roles of party boss, head of state, and commander in chief of the military, and he pushed through changes that allowed him to remain in office permanently. Intelligent but not especially charismatic, his power stems from his institutional titles, but this reveals that his system of governance is brittle. Nothing moves unless he is personally involved. Wong points out that "his new-look Communist Party has come to resemble, in some ways, the imperial bureaucracies of old--bigger and better organized, but no less autocratic, rigid, and plagued by succession woes." The author suggests that when Xi departs or dies, there is likely to be a dangerous power vacuum. In a concluding note, Wong notes that he was expelled from China in 2019 for reasons that were never made clear. It adds a personal dimension to an authoritative, clear-minded study. A penetrating and timely unraveling of the personality and impact of a strongman president. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.