On a snowy day in January 1998 Xu Zengping, a Chinese businessman based out of Hong Kong, stood on the deck of the Varyag, a partially constructed aircraft carrier that was being built by the Soviet Union at a shipyard on the Black Sea. Six years later, Xu had apparently bought it for US $20 million. It was reported that his firm had no licence, no real address and assets of only $125,000, so it is unclear how it could afford to buy the ship. The report concluded that the Varyag had been bought by the PLA Navy for copying its technology.
After the end of the Cold War, China was faced with fundamental challenges – and had to make some critical choices. After Tiananmen: The Rise of China is the story of how it handled its complex domestic and external environment while silently ascending the hierarchy of world power.
The book traces the developments in contemporary China from 1989 to 2010, delving into the country’s political and economic experiments. It examines with adeptness challenges like the ‘Malacca Dilemma’ and the resources crunch that shaped Chinese policies; how, in the process, the very character of the Chinese Communist Party was fundamentally transformed; and the twists and turns in India’s relationship with China.
The sequel to Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest, this is an essential primer for those who wish to understand China’s behaviour today.
“The book explores China’s rise as a global prominence through interesting stories that uncover the risks that China’s leaders took and the tenacity they displayed in the pursuit of reforms, as well as the unfolding of darker underside of rapid growth and gross corruption with which Xi Jinping is grappling.” Says the author, Mr Vijay Gokhale.
About the Author:
Vijay Keshav Gokhale (b. 1959) spent nearly four decades in the Indian Foreign Service. He served as India’s High Commissioner to Malaysia and Ambassador to Germany and to the People’s Republic of China, and retired as the Foreign Secretary in January 2020. He worked on matters relating to China for a significant portion of his diplomatic career. His assignments in Hong Kong, Taipei and Beijing between 1982 and 2017, and his postings in New Delhi at various levels, have given him insights into Chinese politics.
Gokhale was present in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident and witnessed many of the happenings. He regards the incident as a seminal event in modern Chinese politics, which ought to be studied for a deeper understanding of China. He currently lives in Pune with his wife Vandana, and devotes his time to the study of China.
He is the author of Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest (HarperCollins, 2021) and The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India (Penguin, 2021).
For more information, contact Aman Arora at aman.arora@harpercollins.co.in
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