China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower

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One of the few books that anyone who wants to understand the twentieth century simply must read' New Statesman

China After Mao, The Rise of a Superpower by Frank Dikotter China After Mao, The Rise of a Superpower by Frank Dikotter

While one needs to appreciate the ingenuity of the party leadership to develop very innovative policy measures from time to time to handle the contradictions of a ‘socialist market economy,’ one wonders about the sustainability of the Chinese governance model. With the economic modernisation project more than four decades old, the scope for ‘ad-hocism’ in policymaking is increasingly getting constricted. As a summary of events in China since 1976, it probably does the job, although I can’t definitively say so since I’m a layperson. I will note that it reads more as summary-with-an-opinion than cutting analysis, although that’s not necessarily bad. Presumably the access to long-restricted archives gives it an edge over other, similar texts? An insider’s account of the rampant misconduct within the Trump administration, including the tumult surrounding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Dikötter was given access to Chinese archives that were previously not open to foreign researchers. The period from 1976 untill now is often painted as a 'golden age' in present-day China. It is the time of the Chinese economic "growth miracle": the economy often grew by more than ten percent per year, and rushed closer and closer to that of the United States. This rosy vision has also been largely adopted abroad, according to Dikötter, without first really looking carefully at whether that image is correct. Because ... is this really correct?

Reviews

China na Mao is een zeer gedetailleerd werk en als lezer is het soms moeilijk je hoofd erbij te houden. De auteur heeft duidelijk een grote kennis van het land en goochelt met termen die vooral economen bekend in de oren zullen klinken. Anderzijds zullen zij het dan weer moeilijk hebben met de geschiedenis van China die ook niet nader verklaard wordt. Het is dus een ingewikkeld werk voor lezers die zowel geïnteresseerd zijn in China, als in economie, en er bovendien reeds heel wat vanaf weten. Hierdoor is het boek zeker niet zo toegankelijk voor het bredere publiek, wat wel jammer is, gezien het interessante thema. Er zijn ook wel wat haperingen, zo stopt hij zijn relaas bij Xi Jin Ping, wie ook wel heel wat hervormingen doorgevoerd heeft die een impact hebben gehad. Hierdoor lijkt Dikötter zijn betoog niet volledig. De bronnen zijn ook eenzijdig, zo haalt hij zijn informatie niet uit verschillende soorten bronnen halen. From the Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author of Mao's Great Famine, a timely and compelling account of China in the wake of Chairman Mao However, Dikotter has woven a compelling narrative regarding how each leader in the reforms era has been ruthless in asserting the party’s dominant position, notwithstanding the price they had to pay. If one takes into consideration Deng’s ruthless purging of Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, Jiang Zemin’s ‘three represents’ theory and its adept interpretation followed by Hu Jintao’s pronouncements regarding the unquestionable supremacy of the party, Xi Jinping’s policy of party first is more of a continuity rather than an aberration. A leading historian of modern China. He is a rare scholar, adept in both Russian and Chinese . . . Combined with this linguistic skill, Dikötter has a writer's gift' EVENING STANDARD This is my main message that I take with me: according to Dikötter the 'age of China' does not exist and will never come. China is not in the good shape everyone thinks it is. He challenges the idea that China would have been on a long straight road to unprecedented economic success after Mao's death. He even states that China never really took the path of economic liberalization after 1989. The reason is simple: the leaders knew that the economy would collapse immediately, according to Dikötter. He also comes to the surprising conclusion that even after all the reforms, China is not that different from forty years ago. Rising debts, overcapacity at state-owned enterprises, decades of neglect of the countryside. According to him, China is therefore at a dead end.

China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower - Goodreads

From internationally renowned historian Frank Dikötter, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, a myth­shattering history of China from the death of Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping. Tuesday, November 15, 2022 1 min read The book became riveting in recounting the events leading up to the massacre at Tiananmen Square; there were uprisings in other cities as well. All were ruthlessly suppressed. Der Autor begann 1985 in Tianjin sein Sinologiestudium, als es im gesamten Land weniger als 20 000 Privatfahrzeuge gab. 10 Jahre später nutzt er die Phase der erstmaligen Öffnung von Archiven zur Recherche. Seine Archivstudien in gut einem Dutzend Archiven, sowie Presseartikel und unveröffentlichte Erinnerungen von Zeitzeugen vermitteln ein kenntnisreiches China-Bild mit Focus auf die Wirtschaft des autoritär von der Kommunistischen Partei regierten Staates. This book is a definitive guide of what's happening in contemporary China. It will be a difficult read for pro-CCP admirers and the like.

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based Dutch historian, has previously published a trilogy of books charting Chinese history since the coming to power of the Communist Party in 1949. These include Mao’s Great Famine, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2011.

China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower: Frank Dikötter China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower: Frank Dikötter

Nothing will reveal the downfall of the CCP other than the collapse of the economy. Every other aspect of life is dominated by the CCP as the author asserts. This book is a clear, well-written recounting of the leadership changes of the Chinese Communist Party since the death of Mao. His narrative documents the fits and starts of the CCP leadership as they try to balance a modern economy but keep control of the means of production. None of it has gone particularly well in Dikotter's analysis. I would have liked a little more focus on HK (and Taiwan), maybe Macau and the rest of PRD, and some other specific topics, as well as the business/scientific issues of specific joint ventures and infrastructure projects, but this was a high-level overview. The reason? China must first be freed from the communist system before it has a chance to truly flourish. A communist system is simply not good and the economy will never be able to flourish properly under such a system.

Unfortunately, very little is written about Xi Jinping whose own influence now is considered on par with Mao. Nevertheless, you will get the idea, very little change is in store for China save for the CCP's and Xi's grip on power.

CHINA AFTER MAO | Kirkus Reviews CHINA AFTER MAO | Kirkus Reviews

Xi Jinping inspects a guard of honour in Moscow, June 2019. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images In the US we've become shamefully addicted to cheap and plentiful goods from China. This book clearly shows we need a policy that doesn't rely on this consumption to power our economic growth. We also need to reconsider policies of the past two decades that have mistakenly believed that inviting China to participate in the WTO would induce them to play by our rules. They continue to lie, steal, and cheat to their advantage. Until/unless the other WTO nations stand up to China, we will continue to follow Lenin's dictum, the capitalist will sell us the rope we use to hang them. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what has shaped today's China and what the Chinese Communist Party's choices mean for the rest of the world' New Statesman Books of the Year Just bear in mind that if you don't have a serious depth of interest in Chinese economics and society in the 70s and 80s and want a rather general introduction to history and politics of the period you should rather look somewhere else.The country was still struggling badly in the early 1990s when Deng made his famous “southern tour” and it later sailed dangerously close to the wind after both the 1998 Asian economic crisis and the global one in 2008 – the latter a point that is largely absent from most appraisals of that particular event. In Dikötters umfassendem Werk finde ich die Darstellung der 80er-Jahre besonders gelungen, weil sich das Wissen über China im Westen damals meist auf wenige persönliche Kontakte und die Berichte von Auslandskorrespondenten beschränkte. In dem man im Wortsinn aus der Geschichte lernt, lassen sich Gehörtes und Erlebtes einordnen, wenn man als Leser verfolgt, wie sich Werte und Einstellungen chinesischer Bürger seit den 80ern eher gefestigt als verändert haben. Die generationenalte Weisheit z. B., dass „Chinesen Banken nicht trauen“, wird durch Dikötters Analyse begreifbar – und ihre Gültigkeit bis heute. I don't know I found it too dry, certainly harder to read than his People's Trilogy which was absolutely fantastic.