Not since the sixties has the mind of one man been so critical to China’s political direction. In the wake of grumblings over lockdowns and the zero-Covid policy’s impact on the economy, rumors have swirled about a split between Li Keqiang and Xi Jinping. These are likely unfounded – there is little indication that Xi’s grip has loosened, and nor does there appear to be any credible alternative to his power, given the consolidation of clout and the network of patronage he has assembled. In the autumn he will almost certainly be selected for a third term as China’s leader, and continue to dominate Chinese politics.
That is why our ‘One to Read’ this month is a study of how Xi rose to power, which charts his trajectory in a clear and readable primer. It is also worth noting that this month four new books came out in China that serve as hagiography, “vividly demonstrating Xi’s conviction and his concern for the people,” according to state media. Whatever Xi’s official status, or the portrayal he is given from different sides, we would be remiss not to read up on his past so as to be prepared for the future.
The One to Read
Xi: A Study in Power by Kerry Brown
For one of the most important world leaders of our times, Xi Jinping is somewhat of a black box. In this latest work, Kerry Brown (the prolific professor now based at King’s College, London) attempts to lift the lid. After a long lead-in that posits Xi as “the most powerful person in the world,” a clear and detailed chronology tells his story from childhood, through his sent-down youth in Shaanxi, and how he earned his early political chops in Hebei and Fujian; moving on to his rise to prominence in Zhejiang and Shanghai, then his ascent to central power in 2007, the premiership in 2012, and his enshrinement as the ‘core’ of China’s ‘new era’ in 2017. Brown argues that Xi’s defining priority has always been stability and the status quo, while listing the factors that could destabilize that mission. As he prepares to take a third term, Brown argues persuasively that “we are all Xi’s audience now.”
May 26, 2022 | Icon Books. $17.95. | Buy.
The Shortlist
The Party Leads All: The Evolving Role of the Chinese Communist Party edited by Jacques deLisle and Guobin Yang
Xi’s pre-eminence is closely linked to his prime agenda on taking office: bringing the Communist Party, which had seen its grip on society and market steadily loosen, back to the fore. The title of this collection of essays dates to the Mao era, but echoes Xi’s similar statements today. In it, a variety of scholars with a grounding in CCP history take on topics from Party factions to how it exerts control over civil society and the economy, the external and internal threats it faces, the state of corruption in its ranks, and perceptions of it domestically and abroad. Dense reading at times, but a wide-ranging work that complements any biography of Xi with the broader picture.
June 14, 2022 | Brookings Institution Press. $49.99. | Buy.
Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour edited by Ivan Franceschini and Christian Sorace
Another collection of essays, this one is a doorstopper best skimmed that was published shortly after the centenary of the CCP’s founding in 1921. Back then, as today, the Party claimed to represent the working class of China, but is that claim valid and how has the dynamic changed since? An impressive roster of China academics and writers focus on historical events that have complicated the relationship between rulers and workers, from labor movements in the twenties, through the Cultural Revolution to student activism in recent decades, when the Party has come to represent the rich as much as the proletariat. A fascinating mosaic of moments that show how dependent the Party still is on the people.
June 7, 2022 | Verso. $40.66. | Buy.
Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea by Katie Stallard
While only partially about China, this eye-opening and grippingly written work makes it onto our shortlist for its sections on Russia and North Korea as well – offering comparisons that put China’s historical acrobatics into regional and global context. Stallard – a former Sky News correspondent who spent time in all three nations – explores how these authoritarian powers have co-opted the past to justify their regimes, from the Kim dynasty’s origin myth in North Korea to the ‘Great Patriotic War’ in Russia, now invoked by Putin to justify his war in Ukraine, and China’s Wars of Resistance against Japan and America (WWII and the Korean war, respectively). With Xi’s warnings against “historical nihilism” repeated of late, it is all too clear that he is heeding Mao’s exhortation to “make the past serve the present.”
May 2, 2022 | Oxford University Press. $29.95. | Buy.
Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao by Joseph Torigian
A second parallel study of Soviet and Chinese history further illuminates what China watchers can learn from the comparison. In this readable work of political science, the focus is the power succession after the deaths of Stalin and Mao respectively. Torigian dismantles the notion of a stable Leninist succession mechanism in which moderates won out over radicals. Instead, he demonstrates that factional in-fighting, backroom backstabbing and open violence played a greater role in appointing a successor, in a whirlwind of personal rivalries he calls “decidedly non-Marxist”. Examining the downfalls of Beria and the Gang of Four, and the rise of Khrushchev and (briefly) Hua Guofeng, the patterns identified will interest anyone with an eye to what may happen on that seemingly far-off date when Xi finally leaves office.
May 10, 2022 | Yale University Press. $65. | Buy.
No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs by Nury Turkel
A timely publication, just as a fresh leak of police files document the scope of the campaign, this memoir by Uyghur activist Nury Turkel reminds us that at least a million Muslims in the restive region have been detained in “reeducation camps”, some on charges as grimly comical as “having a long beard”. Turkel describes the round-up campaigns that began in 2017, before placing it in the broader context of the Chinese state’s long-running agenda to control human and natural resources there, from the perspective of a human rights attorney representing the victims and telling their heart-wrenching stories. A recommended pairing is March’s We Uyghurs Have No Say by Ilham Tohti, one of the Uyghur academics targeted.
May 10, 2022 | Hanover Square Press. $26.49. | Buy.
In Case You Missed It
The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao by Ian Johnson
From a journalist who won the Pulitzer for his work on China’s repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, this work takes on an under-reported aspect of the ‘new’ China: its religious revival since spiritual practice was allowed again (with caveats) after the 1980s. Over the course of a year – with the passing seasons forming the structure at the book’s heart – Johnson follows underground church members, Daoist priests, Buddhist pilgrims, Confucian sages and other characters as they negotiate what it means to have faith in a communist nation where the only salvation one is supposed to get is from the Party.
April 11, 2017 | Pantheon. $12.50. | Buy.
Alec Ash is the books editor for The Wire. He is the author of Wish Lanterns. His work has also appeared in The Economist, BBC, SupChina, and Foreign Policy. @alecash
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