Description

 Where is China heading in the twenty-first century? Recent
curtailments of liberty, such as the new "cyberwall" prohibiting
internet users from reaching pro-democracy websites, has dimmed the
hopes of many that China might be entering a new era of freedom on the
heels of rapid economic expansion and success. Will China's Communist
Party be able to balance an economy which demands liberal reform with
their own hard-line approach to government control? Or will their new
economy be their undoing, as its demands on natural resources bring
China to the brink of environmental disaster? In this highly readable
account, John Gittings sheds light on modern Chinese history as he
answers these vital questions.
Gittings, the Guardian's China specialist and East Asia editor for
twenty years, offers a fascinating glimpse into Chinese history in the
last half century. His narrative ranges from the early Peach-Blossom
socialism, to the Great Leap Forward, the two Cultural Revolutions,
the Hundred Flowers, the Gang of Four, and the Tiananmen Square
massacre. Bringing his account to the present, Gittings concludes that
environmental degradation and rising pollution represent the most
serious threats to the Chinese people today. He points out that the
nightmare scenario for China is not a collapse of the Party or of the
banks, or another uprising by the rural masses. It is that China will
run out of water.
Based on three decades reporting on China, Gittings charts a complex
but epic history of one of the world's superpowers. His work will
offer insights for readers with an interest in modern China, and
students of modern Chinese history and politics. 

Paperback: 384 pages 
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 7, 2006) 
Language: English