Roger Garside is a former British diplomat who twice served in the British embassy in Beijing in the 1960s and 1970s. During his career he also worked for the World Bank in Thailand, and later ran his own consultancy advising countries on developing capital markets as they liberalize their economies. He is the author of the acclaimed book, "Coming Alive: China After Mao," a portrait of the social and political developments in the country in the mid to late 1970s. His new book, China Coup: The Great Leap to Freedom, is partly a fictionalized account of how a plot to unseat China’s leader Xi Jinping could unfold; and partly an analysis of why such a coup could happen, rooted in Garside’s analysis of the current state of politics in Beijing. What follows is a lightly edited Q&A.
Roger GarsideIllustration by Lauren Crow
Q: How did you come to write this provocative book?
A: The book is a call to action for the U.S. and its allies to make regime change in Ch
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