In this book Jasper Becker has done an impressive and exhaustive job on digging up information and interviews, out of a society that has pulled out all the stops to repress all knowledge of China's enormous famine of the early 60's. Chairman Mao, who has been idolized and emulated by many third world countries and disdvantaged peoples as a visionary, is instead revealed in this book as a stubborn, cruel, and apathetic dictator. Mao's so-called "Great Leap Forward" quickly became a failure in its efforts to forcibly collectivize agriculture and increase production. Mao refused to believe that his great plan was causing the starvation of huge numbers of peasants, and suppressed and threatened anyone who tried to reveal the truth. The fact that communist officials down to the local level had been threatened to keep their mouths shut, and that Mao refused to admit failure, proves that these dictators would rather watch tens of millions of people die than admit that their bold plan was a dismal failure. So instead of looking like a laughing stock on the world stage, they allowed these people to die and then used an iron fist to cover up all information about the famine. Ironically, this is from a regime supposedly dedicated to the "people" and it was an eerie repeat of a similar famine inflicted on the Ukraine by Stalin 30 years earlier.

Becker has done a good job of unearthing this long-suppressed information, and adequately debunks past writers and politicians who were misled and duped by the communist propaganda machine. While Becker's statistical approach makes this book repetitive in places (especially the section giving the famine's development and death tolls from various Chinese provinces), overall the book is an impressive piece of scholarship. Also, the new postscript about the recent famine in North Korea, which has resulted from almost the same political failures, offers disturbing proof that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

I have taught finance at universities in both Hong Kong and the US, and I regularly recommend this book to my MBA and undergraduate students as a graphic illustration of the risks and weaknesses of a planned economy, particularly when combined with control of the media. Perhaps Becker puts too much emphasis on the responsibility of Mao and not enough on his many followers. But the fact remains that this massive famine could not have occurred in a market economy and would not occurred if so much power had not been concentrated in the hands of one person. Mao was brilliant when it came to maintaining political power but painfully inadequate in his understanding of science. In power politics, reality is whatever you can convince people to believe. Mao refused to accept the fact that science and economics do not ulitimately follow this same rule (or perhaps he didn't care). No matter how many people claim to believe in a bountiful harvest, they will still starve to death if they have nothing to eat. To further understand the Chinese Communist Party under Mao, I recommend the book written by Mao's personal physician. As for Becker's account of the worst famine in history (and the postscript to the later edition, pointing out that it's happening again today in North Korea), the book is informative and fascinating. It offers a lesson for those, particularly in Asia, that don't believe that economic decisions should be left to the market. A government directing industrial policy is unlikely to produce the extreme consequences seen here. Nevertheless, the dangers of lack of diversification due to one set of possibly misguided or simply mistaken leaders forcing everyone in the same direction are the same. Too much attention is given to the relatively rare cases, such as Japan or Singapore, where it worked, at least temporarily. This is the most extreme of the many, many examples that show how painful failure can be when the same policy is forced on everyone.

This book tells the fascinating and horrifying story of a Chinese famine caused by the communists. Basically, the communists had "experts" (really party hacks) who thought they knew everything about agricultural such as burying seeds several feet into the ground to produce good growth and planting crops close to each other so they could help each other grow. These techniques failed miserably but no one would admit the failures in the communist chain of command. Glowing reports of record crops were passed along to the point that Mao was wondering what to do with the surplus. Before it was over, millions had died and countless others were reduced to cannibalism.

If anyone ever thought that George Orwell didn't know about Communists and that way of thinking, he/she should read this book. Everything about it rings like an unpublished Orwell novel, but it was all too true for the millions who died. This work should definately be required reading for high school students.

Kudos to Becker for his placement of the Chinese in historical context. The book is worth its salt if for no other part than the 20 page introduction that gives a synopsis of the Chinese state. And this book could have been written by no one other than someone who had observed every day life in China for a period of ten years. Even after all this, he is still good about admitting that the place eludes generalization.

I've just finished living in China and have found that many of the things that he says are correct. For example: He mentions that the cities are among the most prosperous places and that the rich people live there as they always have. The further one goes from the city centers, the more obvious the real picture is.

He makes some very prescient observations about the affinity of the Chinese for tyrants and their love of all-controlling, authoritarian regimes. If the CCP collapsed tomorrow, the citizenry wouldn't know what to do with itself if history is any guide.

Everyone also seems to think that China is going to take over the world in the near future. After reading the details of the book, one wonders: "Is this really consistent with what you would expect from such a situation as he describes?"

One or two things that are missing that were covered in later publications--by different authors: What happens in the case where there is a large peasantry that feels that their taxes are being extracted to support the wealthy? What happens when there is a huge excess of men to women in a particular country? At the beginning of the book, he said that he was not going to offer a book about political ideology. But it would have been nice if he had drawn just a few more parallels between what happened in other places under similar circumstances. (This story has been told many times before; Only the players are different.)

Actually, there are too many good observations to even address within the word limit of the reviews. One other that is too good to resist noting is the Chinese concept of "race," as it was taught many years ago by Sun Yat Sen (Chinese and White are superior and all others are inferior, thus the Chinese race must regenerate itself or risk extinction) that is still very much believed in Taiwan and colors certain notions/ statements that one hears in every day life there as well as in the Mainland.

Lastly, he could have shaved about 75 pages off the book and it would not have been diminished in any way. When dealing with such large amounts of factual information as he put in the book, shorter is always better. In any case, there is very little that I disagree with in this book and most people (especially Sinophiles and other romantics) would do very well to read this book and understand what it demonstrates.

A must read for those who have to deal with China whether in politics, academic or business. Becker, who has spent more than 15 years in China as a journalist, gives an anatomy of modern China including a brief introduction of Chinese history. It is one of the most comprehensive descriptions of China in minority affairs, society, political system, education, military, rule of law, one-child policy, business, . . . among others.

China is at a crossroad at the beginning of a new millennium. Its State Owned Enterprises, SOE, are not competitive and at the brink of bankruptcy. Unemployment is at record high. Old industrial areas like Manchuria have become a rust belt. And rampant corruption in its bureaucratic system has made the Communist regime a great joke of the 20th century.

Becker collects all the important facts of modern China and details some intricacies that surprise even those who have paid close attention to Chinese affairs.

The epilogue, 'Examining the Oracle Bones,' concludes the book wisely. 'Since almost everything the state says is untrue, and most information is kept secret, there is no real trust or cooperation between its officials and the rest of the population,' Becker writes. 'China's future depends on the extent to which a basis of trust between government and people can be established,' suggested Becker.

The two parties, the Chinese Communist Party and the Koununtang who had governed the Chinese since 1911, are 'peas from the same pod.' Taiwan finally seized the opportunity in last March by electing President Chen Shui-bian who used to be a dissident to building a full fledged democratic system. It provides hope for Chinese to change.

Yu-Tai Chia, President (1993 - 1996), Chinese Democracy Education Foundation

This is a fascinating, hard-to-put down description of recent China which traces the roots of today's conditions into the past. Mr. Becker has visited many places in China which are off the beaten path, and he has talked to a wide array of people. He is also well-read in Chinese history and culture. The book is footnoted, making use of a variety of written sources in Chinese and English in addition to the author's own direct observations and interviews.

A chapter which was especially interesting to me describes Chinese intellectuals of the present and past, their part in shaping 20th-century political developments, and ways in which intellectuals were affected by cataclysmic events such as the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the continuing roller-coaster ride of events since the 1970's. Some little-known intellectual and political movements of the first half of the 20th century are highlighted also. Another chapter shows the shocking effects of Maoist policies on education, and what happened to many teachers during the Cultural Revolution and afterwards.

However, this is not a book which focusses just upon the elites. Also described, with substance and readability, are economic changes, minorities, health care, the environment, conditions among people in the countryside, the one-child policy, law, bureaucracy, access to information outlets, Chinese views on morality, and the role of the People's Liberation Army. There are some striking observations on the relationship between privatization and one-party rule, and resultant impacts on people's attitudes towards the state and the world in general.

While the book focusses upon developments in the last few decades, it is one of the best, most balanced books I've read on China generally. It suggests to me that Mr. Becker has real understanding and compassion for individual Chinese people, and not just for cloudy concepts about Chinese people and culture. Based upon my own experiences in China, Mr. Becker's descriptions of places such as Shenzhen are right on target. Unlike many books by writers who attempt to explain current conditions in a particular country, and who, in the process, talk mostly to people who seem to be like themselves, this book is an in-depth, carefully researched study which lets Chinese people from many backgrounds speak for themselves.