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The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers Hardcover – June 8, 2010

4.5 out of 5 stars 544 ratings

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“Few outsiders have any realistic sense of the innards, motives, rivalries, and fears of the Chinese Communist leadership. But we all know much more than before, thanks to Richard McGregor’s illuminating and richly-textured look at the people in charge of China’s political machinery.... Invaluable.” — James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic

The Party is Financial Times reporter Richard McGregor’s eye-opening investigation into China’s Communist Party, and the integral role it has played in the country’s rise as a global superpower and rival to the United States. Many books have examined China’s economic rise, human rights record, turbulent history, and relations with the U.S.; none until now, however, have tackled the issue central to understanding all of these issues: how the ruling communist government works. The Party delves deeply into China’s secretive political machine.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. McGregor, a journalist at the Financial Times, begins his revelatory and scrupulously reported book with a provocative comparison between China™s Communist Party and the Vatican for their shared cultures of secrecy, pervasive influence, and impenetrability. The author pulls back the curtain on the Party to consider its influence over the industrial economy, military, and local governments. McGregor describes a system operating on a Leninist blueprint and deeply at odds with Western standards of management and transparency. Corruption and the tension between decentralization and national control are recurring themes--and are highlighted in the Party™s handling of the disturbing Sanlu case, in which thousands of babies were poisoned by contaminated milk powder. McGregor makes a clear and convincing case that the 1989 backlash against the Party, inexorable globalization, and technological innovations in communication have made it incumbent on the Party to evolve, and this smart, authoritative book provides valuable insight into how it has--and has not--met the challenge.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“A masterful depiction of the party today. . . . McGregor illuminates the most important of the contradictions and paradoxes. . . . An entertaining and insightful portrait of China’s secretive rulers.” — The Economist

“A fascinating and ambitious book. . . . Revealing. . . . McGregor lays bare the secretive machinery of the party, how it operates far more pervasively in public life and commerce than many suspect.” — Forbes

“McGregor does a persuasive job of sketching how communist the country really still is. . . . Anyone who wants to understand more about China would be well advised to pick up McGregor’s book. — Newsweek

“As informative as it is entertaining. . . . China has been transformed. There is no denying it. The system that takes the credit is brilliantly described by McGregor.” — The Financial Times

“Astute. . . . A sober, realistic book. . . . A readable guide to how China is governed.” — Bloomberg

“Richard McGregor has penned a detailed look at the Chinese Communist Party that is must reading for U.S. officials and China affairs specialists who profess to be perplexed at why the regime in Beijing consistently operates like a Soviet-style communist dictatorship and not a Western-style democracy.” — The Washington Times

“Fascinating. . . . The Party examines the intricate relationship between the Communist Party and the Chinese government, exposing how a political machine subverts the will to properly govern a billion people.” — Esquire

“A careful, highly well-informed and entertaining account of China’s ruling class, chronicling the country’s 30-year rise to major economic power despite high levels of poverty.” — The Associated Press

“A compelling exploration of the world’s largest and most successful political machine.” — Isabel Hilton, New Statesman

“Richard McGregor is one of the best foreign journalists who have ever reported from China. The Party draws on more than a decade of his superb reporting there, showing his keen eye for the telling detail that penetrates the veil of secrecy about how the Communist Party rules China, how it keeps track of its members, how it keeps the military under control, and how it penetrates business. A fine contribution for those who want to know about the rising power they will face in the decades ahead.” — Ezra Vogel, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

“Superb in its depiction and demystification of the most important force at work in China today. Essential , riveting guide to how the rising power really works.” — Jonathan Fenby, author of The Penguin History of Modern China

“This is a marvellous and finely written study of how China is really run, and how its strange but successful system of Leninist capitalism really works. It should be read by anyone doing business with or just trying to understand China.” — Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist

“Illuminating and richly-textured. . . . The Party will be invaluable for anyone trying to make sense of China’s future plans and choices. It has certainly enriched my own understanding of the country.” — James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic

“Richard McGregor is one of the best foreign journalists who have ever reported from China. The Party is a fine contribution for those who want to know about the rising power they will face in the decades ahead.” — Ezra Vogel, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

“An engrossing read. . . . McGregor’s is a vivid narrative, sprinkled with humour and insightful analysis, of how the party has imprinted itself on almost every aspect of life in China, and how it has maintained its stranglehold on power.” — The South China Morning Post

“An illuminating and important new book. . . . A lively and penetrating account of a party that, since its founding in Shanghai as a clandestine organization in 1921, has clung to secrecy as an inviolable principle.” — The Washington Post

“An extraordinary book . . . with details never published before. . . . McGregor has done a terrific job of parting the curtains. . . . This book has come out at the right moment.” — The Sunday Times (London)

“Masterful. . . . McGregor’s book is proof that for all of its secretive tendencies, the Party and its power can be usefully analyzed. . . . An accessible introduction to the Party’s power in today’s China.” — Ian Johnson, The New York Review of Books

“Fascinating. . . . Illuminating. . . . Mr. McGregor guides readers through recent events in China, teasing out what each tells us about the Party’s role. . . . Reading this primer will help foreigners better navigate the hidden political shoals of the Chinese business world.” — The Wall Street Journal

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0061708771
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 8, 2010
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780061708770
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061708770
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.05 x 9 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #546,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 544 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
544 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book insightful and well-researched, providing a fascinating overview of China's political landscape. They appreciate its readability, with one customer noting how the author organizes facts effectively. The book offers a well-rounded perspective on the ruling elite, and customers value its flexibility. The storytelling receives mixed reactions from customers.

45 customers mention "Insight"45 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful, describing it as a fascinating and wonderfully researched overview that provides good insight into Chinese culture, offering an interesting insider's perspective.

"...The chapters on the Shanghai Gang are also very informative as it allows the reader to understand the massive struggle Xi Jinping must of had..." Read more

"A must read for understanding China. A little bumpy read at times, but the picture drawn for the reader is very, very sobering." Read more

"informative and balanced" Read more

"Excellent read. Provides good insight into a culture and government organization so foreign to western world...." Read more

35 customers mention "Readability"35 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and interesting, with one customer noting it is wonderfully researched and another mentioning it is highly recommended for those working in China.

"A good book on understanding how the Chinese communist party really works and why things are done the way they often are...." Read more

"...A good read, and definitely one that will take away any fantasy that China ever "wanted to be the west when they grow up."" Read more

"I thought this was a great book. Of course, it's a few years old now so it mentions nothing of Xi Jinping in power at the helm...." Read more

"Excellent read. Provides good insight into a culture and government organization so foreign to western world...." Read more

27 customers mention "Readable"23 positive4 negative

Customers find the book readable and well-written, with one customer noting how effectively the author organizes the facts.

"This is a very readable, fascinating book that puts together what a lot of people who pay any attention to China already know - yet perhaps fail to "..." Read more

"...And the author does this in a very effective manner - well organized, well researched, and well sourced...." Read more

"...the institutional workings of a massive, nimble, confusing, calculating organization that influences the daily lives of over a billion people...." Read more

"...Well written and simple to digest, if you were thinking of doing business or moving to work in China, this is a perfect book for anybody wanting to..." Read more

5 customers mention "View"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's perspective, with one noting it provides an excellent view of the ruling elite.

"...or planning to live in China as this book provides a very well-rounded view of the key decision making body that is present throughout all aspects..." Read more

"...Rather it is the gripping style, intended to paint a picture and tell a story rather than lecture...." Read more

"Is China really communist? This book offers an excellent view of the ruling elite...." Read more

"...The author is an exceptional observer and had shrew view and great access to some insiders...." Read more

3 customers mention "Flexibility"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's flexibility.

"...But the system has also proved to be flexible and protean enough to absorb everything that has been thrown at it, to the surprise and horror of many..." Read more

"...author's view, showing clarity of structure, long term motivations, flexibility and abuses of the Chinese Communist Party...." Read more

"...that the current party in power on the Mainland is persistent, flexible, and completely pervasive." Read more

15 customers mention "Storytelling"10 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the storytelling in the book, with some finding it engaging and fascinating, while others find it superficial and repetitive.

"...It's more about individual stories and how they reflect greater trends. Don't look to this book for any comprehensive narrative...." Read more

"...It also leaves out some important subjects like Falun Gong, North Korea and Fishing boat disputes in the sea of Japan...." Read more

"...He tells his story with panache...." Read more

"...The author tells a very plain truth which we , as local Chinese , some time not even think about , that " there's god everywhere in China " , just..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2010
    Politics in China can be often opaque to foreigners. In some sense it is surprising the lack of literature on the Chinese Communist Party and the means in which it functions, but as illustrated in this book, much happens behind closed doors. If one wants an introduction to the party as well as the way in which it governs and integrates itself then this serves perfectly. After reading this one gets a better perspective on how the party operates, the stresses that it deals with, how it has adapted in the past and what it is dealing with today.

    The Party uses both example and commentary to show by example how the Party is behind some of the major business decisions of recent history. It gives examples of how the Party directly influences some of the biggest corporates on the planet. In particular the rotation of the CEOs of the 3 biggest chinese telco operators was done behind closed doors without consultation with the public. It discusses Chalco's impact on disrupting one of the biggest potential mergers in modern business history (Rio and BHP), as such a merger would shift bargaining power of mineral prices away from consumer (china) and towards producer. Its actions need to be assessed through the lense of an entity who is both asserting and preserving its power as well as protecting its sovereign interests.

    The Party also discusses the internal stresses faced by the communist party. With the phenomenal success of the chinese economy and the wealth that has been created with growth comes greater competition between the lure of the party, and the desire for commercial wealth. This stress has been a source of corruption and rent seeking. With economies directed from the bottom up with preferential state lending, the position of power of local authorities can and is used for personal benefit. The party it is argued acknowledges and accepts this. It must deal with both punishing examples to show vigilance but realizing that removing the rents that are recieved with political power would remove the incentive to join and thus would promote instability.

    Overall this is a fascinating overview of how the Chinese Communist Party operates and what it has to deal with. It has had to adapt quickly, and the stresses it is dealing with will likely intensify over time. The way in which the party maintains its power is on a tightrope in which differences in opinion within the party are abundant. Nonetheless they have so far been able to form consensus and progress despite their differences. It is the ability to unify and come to consensus that has taken them this far, despite some near break points. Whether that will continue to be the case, time will tell, but as an overview on what is happening today and some of the solutions the party has crafted, this book is excellent. It is a must read to gain perspective into how the communist party operates and how it sees things.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2015
    This is one of the most well researched and chronicled books on the impact that the Communist Party has over all things in China. The author has meticulously researched (from Chinese and non-Chinese sources) the topic and the major structures of one of the most closed, opaque political systems in the world.

    Even though the central leadership, standing committee memberships and politburo has changed (as of 2012), this is still highly relevant to many of the themes that the Party continues to struggle with and confront. This includes the growing middle class and income disparity, State-Owned versus Private Corporation governance, environmental issues, the major anti-corruption campaign underway. And this books helps understand why these dominate the party, and why the party behaves the way it does. And the author does this in a very effective manner - well organized, well researched, and well sourced. The chapters on the Shanghai Gang are also very informative as it allows the reader to understand the massive struggle Xi Jinping must of had (continues to have) in installing his key officials into key posts that will help him with his policy agenda.

    Highly recommend this for anyone doing business in China (or with Chinese companies), travelling or planning to live in China as this book provides a very well-rounded view of the key decision making body that is present throughout all aspects of life in this interesting country.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2014
    There is no need to add to the praise of McGregor's work other than to say he brought with him a Sovietologist background when he turned to the Chinese Communist Party that allowed him to see what many others have missed and that is the core embedded Leninist principles as the foundation of the CCP's mode of operation at all levels of activity. As the term Communist has been washed away in western dialog about the Peoples Republic of China McGregor never makes that mistake. His work is a brilliant analysis of the strengths and weakness of the system and he lists the many forecasts that have been made of its inevitable demise but it is worth quoting his final conclusions.

    "It has always been easy to construct scenarios under which the Party loses power. A financial crisis was a favoured one for years. As it turned out, the great financial crisis of the early twenty-first century came to symbolize the eclipse of the west, and China's rise, rather than the other way round.
    ... Within China, the country's distinctive system is not a source of concern. Rather, it is played up as a point of pride. The Global Times, the nationalistic tabloid owned by the People's Daily, the Party's mouthpiece, trumpets how China's rise has ended the post-Cold-War `unilateral' world lorded over by the USA. `The biggest contribution that China has made to world politics is that through revolution, reform and development China has shown the world that the Western model is not the only way to modernize,' it said in an opinion piece in October 2009. `China has also demonstrated that the non-Western world does not necessarily follow the West's footsteps.' The editorial captured a longtime article of faith in China that is only now becoming evident in a western world still recuperating from the financial crisis. The end of the Cold War did not mean the end of history after all. The Chinese communist system is, in many ways, rotten, costly, corrupt and often dysfunctional. The financial crisis has added a dangerous dash of hubris to the mix. But the system has also proved to be flexible and protean enough to absorb everything that has been thrown at it, to the surprise and horror of many in the west. In the absence of democratic elections and open debate, it is impossible to judge popular support for the Party with any degree of accuracy. But it is indisputable since Mao's death that the twin foundations of the Party's power-economic growth and resurgent nationalism-have been strengthened. China has long known something that many in developed countries are only now beginning to grasp, that the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders have never wanted to be the west when they grow up. For the foreseeable future, it looks as though their wish, to bestride the world as a colossus on their own implacable terms, will come true."

    This is 2014, the year another approach by Neo-Marxist analysts* list as the likely date of the collapse of the Chinese economy for its similarities to western capitalists systems.

    They might reevaluate all their conclusions regarding China if they were to see what McGregor was capable of seeing; a mixed economy with a dynamic non-state sector harnessed to a vibrant state sector like no other communist model.
    To quote again: "The Party's genius has been its leaders' ability in the last three decades to maintain the political institutions and authoritarian powers of old-style communism, while dumping the ideological straitjacket that inspired them. The Party's conscious retreat from the private lives of Chinese citizens over the same period had a similarly liberating effect on society. The dehumanization of everyday life that characterized traditional communist societies has largely disappeared in China, along with the food queues. In the process, the Party has pulled off a remarkable political feat, somehow managing to hitch the power and legitimacy of a communist state to the drive and productivity of an increasingly entrepreneurial economy.
    The visible hand of the state and the invisible hand of the market, far from being contradictory, are made to complement and reinforce each other."
    * See Endless Crisis: How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China
    Foster, John Bellamy; McChesney, Robert W. W. (2012-09-01)
    8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Adrian J. Smith
    5.0 out of 5 stars A more thoroughly understood analysis of the Chinese Government
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2012
    The Party turns both commonly misunderstood analyses of China on their head, namely that China has a wholesale embrace of unrestrained capitalism, and the more unobservant one, that China is still communist.
    The Party's central thesis is that, in the words of one Beijing University professor "The Party is like God. He is everywhere, you just can't see him."
    What follows is a series of detailed accounts of how the party is at the heart of all the instruments of state, the economy, the media, and the military.
    Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 6 are in many ways rather similar, detailing the party's involvement in the economy, in both state and private enterprise and how the demarcation between the state and private sector are increasingly blurred.
    Toward the end of the book, greater insight is shown into several high profile corruption cases, such as the Sanlu baby milk poisoning scandal, and the initial attempt to cover it up.
    Perhaps little new is offered in the chapter concerning corruption, an issue highly familiar to many China hands, but the most insightful chapter for myself was Chapter 4, Why we fight: The Party and the Gun.
    Here is examined one of the most curious aspects of modern China, and indeed the modern world, a national military, the world's largest by standing troop numbers, who's first loyalty is to the party, as opposed to most other armies, who's first loyalty is to the state and constitution. The workings of the subordination of the military to the party are given better examination than this reader has hitherto encountered, and chapter 4 is a chapter worthy of disciplined re-reading.
    The final chapter on the Party and their official rendering of history, and control of the national media may be familiar to experienced China hand's but nonetheless new insights are contained.
    On the whole, The Party is a highly readable and detailed examination of China's system, and essential reading for new and old China hands alike.
  • ebolavir
    5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable pour comprendre la Chine
    Reviewed in France on March 31, 2012
    Un journaliste d'investigation se fait recevoir officiellement par le Parti chinois. Il parle la langue et connait le pays. Il a rencontré des jeunes et des vieux, des gens importants et des gens mis au placard. Il emmène le lecteur dans un voyage qu'on ne peut pas oublier. Depuis des années j'assistais aux évènements sans comprendre. Je suis (un peu) éclairé maintenant.

    La version numérique est honnête et lisible (les images trop petites).
    Report
  • Sunil Mumbai
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any outsider interested in the CP
    Reviewed in India on July 21, 2020
    I approached this book as a ‘foreigner’ curious to learn about the CCP. Coming from a multi-party noisy democracy like India, it was always a puzzle as to how a single party system would work, leave alone survive for 70 years. And of course, there were bits and pieces of stories and anecdotes heard over the years about life in China under the party.

    The author does an extremely detailed job on the topic, presenting the various parts of the CCP - in relation to topics such as businesses, army, history etc. The book is rich with anecdotes, real events that shot to national limelight etc to make us get a ring side feel of what transpired in the 15-20 years upto 2010.

    Would love to read a sequel that includes the Xi Jinping era.
  • Colin Chetwood
    4.0 out of 5 stars china
    Reviewed in France on November 3, 2018
    very complete analysis of china capitalist version of communism' (1984)!!
  • GJ
    4.0 out of 5 stars Read it to learn about the chinese political system
    Reviewed in India on July 10, 2017
    Nice indepth, honest analysis of the chinese communist party.