The Party Forever: Inside China's Modern Communist Elite
The dramatic rise of China to great-power status in recent decades has been guided by the single most powerful political organization in the world. According to Callick, an Australian journalist who has covered China for years, that organization, China’s Communist Party, will continue to exercise tight control over the nation’s domestic and foreign policies. Despite the hopes of Westerners and Chinese dissidents, the party remains an instrument of totalitarian control. As Callick indicates, in terms of their own standards, party leaders have succeeded admirably. So how and why do they retain almost total control over the world’s most populous nation? To answer the question, Callick has questioned party leaders, minor party officials, and ordinary Chinese citizens, including dissidents. Callick sees the party operating as a relentless, well-oiled machine that is powerful enough to crush any minor stones that get in its way. He may be guilty of underestimating the emerging forces for liberalization, but this is a brutally incisive and frank look at this repressive but effective institution. --Jay Freeman