The Coming Collapse of China, Gordon G. Chang
The Coming Collapse of China, Gordon G. Chang
6 Rating(s)
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The Coming Collapse of China

Author: Gordon G. Chang

Narrator: Nancy Wu

Unabridged: 12 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/13/2021

Synopsis

China is hot. The world sees a glorious future for this sleeping giant, three times larger than the United States, predicting it will blossom into the world's biggest economy by 2010. According to Chang, however, a Chinese-American lawyer and China specialist, the People's Republic is a paper dragon. Peer beneath the veneer of modernization since Mao's death, and the symptoms of decay are everywhere: Deflation grips the economy, state-owned enterprises are failing, banks are hopelessly insolvent, foreign investment continues to decline, and Communist party corruption eats away at the fabric of society.

Beijing's cautious reforms have left the country stuck midway between communism and capitalism, Chang writes. With its impending World Trade Organization membership, for the first time China will be forced to open itself to foreign competition, which will shake the country to its foundations. Economic failure will be followed by government collapse. Covering subjects from party politics to the Falun Gong to the government's insupportable position on Taiwan, Chang presents a thorough and very chilling overview of China's present and not-so-distant future.

About Gordon G. Chang

Gordon G. Chang, who lived and worked in Asia for almost two decades, is the author of Losing South Korea, Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World, and The Coming Collapse of China.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nick on February 05, 2016

Lots of facts. Lots of opinion. I happen to agree with the author. Anyone who as been to China, will recognize many of the problems addressed in this book.......more

Goodreads review by Andy on September 01, 2016

Ten years have passed since I first read this book and none of it has come true. I bought it in a foreign bookstore in Hong Kong expecting to read something insightful about the economic and political condition in China but sadly that was not the case. I remember there's lots of Falun Gong propagand......more

Goodreads review by Valerie on December 09, 2008

I'm only at about page 100 of this book. There's some good information in here, but it's bit too dry for me. It's also highly biased. I was hoping for more objective writing, but it's just dripping with the author's feelings of China's 'impending doom'. I may get back to this book later just to fini......more

Goodreads review by DiscoSpacePanther on August 19, 2018

The back cover asserts that "the end of the modern Chinese state is near. The People's Republic has five years, perhaps ten, before it falls." That was in 2002. It is now more than fifteen years later, and the PRC under Xi Jinping looks as economically robust and as politically stable as it has sinc......more

Goodreads review by Gary on January 24, 2021

The book was written in 2001 so in the 20 years that have passed since the author wrote it, China's movement towards collapse has not yet occurred. Will it occur ? Well you have a one party country with 1.3 billion people. Corruption is a thread that runs painfully through the landscape. The book le......more

Quotes

"A compelling account of the rot in China's institutions and the forces at work to end the Communist Party's monopoly on power."
-James A. Dorn, Cato Institute, Washington D.C., co-editor of China's Future: Constructive Partner or Emerging Threat?

"Quite simply the best book I know about China's future. Gordon Chang writes marvelously and knows China well. I hope everyone concerned with that country will pay careful consideration to what he sees ahead."
-Arthur Waldron, Director of Asian Studies, American Enterprise Institute; Lauder Professor of International Relations, University of Pennsylvania

"A sobering look at how the unique Chinese experiment of market reforms under one-party dictatorship could go wrong. The author has combined first-hand experience with painstaking research. The often gloomy picture of the violent clashes between the forces of change and those of reaction is relieved by lively anecdotes and witty storytelling. A tour de force not to be missed."
-Willy Wo-Lap Lam, Senior China Analyst at CNN's Hong Kong office and author of "The Era of Jiang Zemin"

“Damning data and persuasive arguments that should set some Communist knees a-knocking.”
-Kirkus

"Gordon Chang takes us on a vividly observed voyage behind the scenes of China's so-called economic miracle, where it turns out that institutions are shaky, relationships corrupt, and success precarious. Chinese society is seething with unrest, and the ruling party is split. Chang has lived and done business in China for years. He is not afraid of making boldjudgments. When he warns that China's two centuries of troubles are still not over, we had better take notice."
-Andrew J. Nathan, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University; Co-Editor, The Tiananmen Papers

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