Dragon Rising
Dragon Rising and other books and information about China
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Dragon Rising
No nation on Earth is as newsworthy as 21st-century China—and no book could be timelier than Dragon Rising,
appearing just as world attention begins to focus on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and China's all-out effort
to present itself as a modern world power. As interest grows, Becker is the ideal guide to the profound
changes that are already reshaping economic, diplomatic, and military strategies all over the globe.
Intertwining in-depth analysis with revealing anecdotal evidence, Becker addresses every major question.
What form will China's government take? How will communism's legacy affect modernization? Can Shanghai's
success with urban capitalism be replicated elsewhere? Will wholesale cultural and economic change be
resisted by the millions facing sudden transition from an authoritarian state to a market-driven society?
How will the new China cope with pollution, unemployment, and voracious demand for energy? Each chapter
examines a specific region and such key local issues as poverty, minority unrest, and official corruption,
then places them in the broader context of Chinese society as a whole.
Vividly illustrated with photographs that capture the paradox of an ancient culture remaking itself into a
dynamic consumer society, Dragon Rising is a wonderfully written, well-rounded, wide-ranging portrait of
China's problems and prospects.
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The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers
China's political and economic growth in the past three decades is one of astonishing, epochal dimensions.
The country has undergone a remarkable transformation on a scale similar to that of the Industrial
Revolution in the West. The most remarkable part of this transformation, however, has been left
largely untold - the central role of the Chinese Communist Party.
As an organization alone, the Party is a phenomenon of unique scale and power. Its membership
surpasses seventy-three million, and it does more than just rule a country. The Party not only has
a grip on every aspect of government, from the largest, richest cities to the smallest far-flung
villages in Tibet and Xinjiang, it also has a hold on all official religions, the media, and the military.
The Party presides over large, wealthy state-owned businesses, and it exercises control over the selection
of senior executives of all government companies, many of which are in the top tier of the Fortune 500 list.
In The Party, Richard McGregor delves deeply into China's inner sanctum for the first time, showing
how the Communist Party controls the government, courts, media, and military, and how it keeps all
corruption accusations against its members in-house. The Party's decisions have a global impact,
yet the CPC remains a deeply secretive body, hostile to the law, unaccountable to anyone or anything
other than its own internal tribunals. It is the world's only geopolitical rival of the United States,
and is steadfastly poised to think the worst of the West.
In this provocative and illuminating account, Richard McGregor offers a captivating portrait of
China's Communist Party, its grip on power and control over China, and its future.
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