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Title: Deng Xiaoping: Chronicle of an Empire by Ruan Ming, Nancy Liu, Peter Rand, Lawrence R. Sullivan ISBN: 0-8133-1920-X Publisher: Perseus Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $79.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: Unreadable by the layman
Comment: This book is far too dense to be read by anyone (like me) without a thorough background of recent Chinese history and politics. Even though I am comfortable with pinyin, no way could I keep straight the constant barrage of names zipping by. No explanation is ever given for various Chinese political terms, many of which were not familiar to me. And there is no historical narrative present to unite the material and keep it interesting.

If you are just an average joe/joan like me who wants to know more about China, don't waste your 28 bucks on this book.

Rating: 5
Summary: Best book on the Deng Xiapoing era that I have found to date
Comment: This book, written by one of Hu Yaobang's staff, shows a very different picture of the players during this period of time than in books penned by western China Watchers. While Deng appears to have truly been interested in political as well as economic reforms, the hardliner coalition in the Chinese Communist Party was able to use his paranoia of personal attacks against him to veer him away from Hu Yaobang's progressive programs. Had he been able to see through the machinations of the hardliners, China might have been farther along in its modernization than it is.

I think the most interest aspect of this book is how it portrays Hu's successor, Zhao Ziyang. Western authors portray Zhao as a reformer. However, Ruan Ming shows us a schemer that is more interested in pushing Deng to the wayside and garnering full authority for himself and his "new elite". In 1989, the West saw a tearful Zhao supposedly working in the interests of the student protestors, symapthizing with their demands for democracy and reform. However, Ruan Ming shows us that this was a merely a tactic in his ongoing struggle to build power for himself within the party.

Overall, I think this book should be required reading for anyone interested in the inner workings of China's government. For once we have an account from a former member of China's government. I feel his account has painted a picture of China's key political players stripped of their masks. We are given an excellent example of how divided China's government is and how that relates to China's ability to develop into a "First World" Power in the future.