THE CHINA CHOICE: Why America should Share Power, by Hugh White, Black Inc.,190pp. Reviewed: 11 August 2012 Hugh White is ANU Professor of Strategic Studies and one of the heavyweights of Australian strategic policy discussion, but this book barely touches…
NO ENEMIES, NO HATRED Selected Essays and Poems of Liu Xiaobo ed. Perry Link, Tienchi Martin-Liao and Liu Xia with foreword by Vaclav Havel Belknap Harvard Press, 355pp. Reviewed: 2 June 2012 In 2010 the Peace Prize Committee infuriated the…
DENG XIAOPING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINA. By Ezra Vogel Belknap, Harvard, 876pp. Reviewed: 18 February 2012 From one man’s navigation through six decades of Chinese politics, we can learn much about the choices we humans make about how our…
SHANGHAI FURY Australian Heroes of Revolutionary China. By Peter Thompson Heinemann, 530pp. Reviewed: 22 October 2011 You might think that the last century and a half of Chinese history has already been probed from every conceivable angle, but Peter Thompson…
THE PARTY The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor Allen Lane, 300pp. Reviewed: 10 July, 2010 Australian natural resources shareholders, keen to take Chinese cash, will point to corporate structures that seem to give the Chinese suitor…
THE GENERALISSIMO Chiang Kai-Shek and the Battle for Modern China By Jay Taylor, Belknap Harvard University Press, 722pp. Reviewed: 1 August 2009 History is not kind to losers, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek is usually considered one of the great losers…
THE CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION a History By Paul Clark, Cambridge University Press, 352pp Reviewed: 29 November 2008 The yawningly bland title of this book is not a fair description. Chairman Mao launched his Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966, ostensibly…
1434 The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet sailed to Italy and ignited the Renaissance By Gavin Menzies, Harper Collins, 367pp Reviewed: 6 September 2008 The publishing industry takes some responsibility for distinguishing fact from fiction, since readers are encouraged to…
CHINA The truth about its human rights record By Frank Ching, Rider Books, 120pp. Reviewed: 19 July 2008 In this short and accessible book, Frank Ching has provided a timely reality check. Many who believe that Australia needs to have…
CHARM OFFENSIVE How China’s Soft Power is Transforming the World By Joshua Kurlantzik, Melbourne University Press, 305pp WHAT DOES CHINA THINK? By Mark Leonard, Fourth Estate, 164pp. CHINA’S BRAVE NEW WORLD and other tales for Global Times By Jeffrey Wasserstrom,…
