Name: The Party
ISBN: 9780061708763

What Hacker News says

euvitudoFeb 2018

This book was recommended to me by my step-father, who is mainland Chinese. He grew up during the cultural revolution and has plenty to say about it. He thought it was a good overview of the Party, and I enjoyed the read.

https://www.amazon.com/Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist-Rulers/...

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laurent123456Oct 2015

They control their citizen's access to information, but from outside it's not difficult to get a relatively accurate picture. This book [0] for instance was quite helpful in understanding how the CCP controls the country and, as a result, how many things work in China.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/The-Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist/dp/0...

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boralbenJul 2012

Economic Reformation completely transformed the government, causing it to be a shadow of its former self by killing millions of jobs at government owned companies. The party survived and subsequently thrived. Chinese unification is a centuries-old goal wholly unrelated to economic development.

I recommend reading Richard McGregor's The Party for a good introduction on the forces at play in modern China.

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JustinSeriouslyDec 2010

Politics and current affairs

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. By John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. By David Remnick

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers. By Richard McGregor

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. By Peter Hessler

Molotovâs Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History. By Rachel Polonsky

Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalistâs Frontline Account of Life, Love and War in his Homeland. By Basharat Peer

The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe. By Peter Godwin

The Watchers: The Rise of Americaâs Surveillance State. By Shane Harris

The Rule of Law. By Tom Bingham

The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Childrenâs Futureâand Why They Should Give it Back By David Willetts

Biography and memoir

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance. By Edmund de Waal

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Familyâs Feuds. By Lyndall Gordon

Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. By Stephen Sondheim

The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.By Eric Siblin

History

Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. By Timothy Snyder

Why the West RulesâFor Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future. By Ian Morris

Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. By Frank Dikotter

Red Plenty: Industry! Progress! Abundance! Inside the Fifties' Soviet Dream. By Francis Spufford

A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided. By Amanda Foreman

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Americaâs Great Migration. By Isabel Wilkerson

Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth. By Hilary Spurling

A History of the World in 100 Objects. By Neil MacGregor

Economics and business

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. By Michael Lewis

More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite. By Sebastian Mallaby

High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. By Niall Ferguson

Science and technology

A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. By Paul Edwards

Biology is Technology: The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life. By Rob Carlson

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. By Matt Ridley

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. By Steven Johnson

What Technology Wants. By Kevin Kelly

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. By Siddhartha Mukherjee

Culture, society and travel

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages. By Guy Deutscher

Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results. By Michael Scott Moore

Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre. By Larry Stempel

McGilchristâs Greek Islands. By Nigel McGilchrist

Fiction

Freedom. By Jonathan Franzen

To the End of the Land. By David Grossman

Parrot and Olivier in America. By Peter Carey

The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris

Mr Peanut. By Adam Ross

The Imperfectionists. By Tom Rachman

Selected Stories. By William Trevor

Poetry

Human chain. By Seamus Heaney

White Egrets: Poems. By Derek Walcott

(lets hear it for perl one-liners.)

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VygmraMGVlSep 2019

It's not even a new reality Post-Xi. The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor detailed

- the forced induction of heads of companies into the CCP under threat of corruption charges

- the historic use of the Army as a flexible labor force

- the CCP picking winners and losers in industries

All back in 2012, before Xi became premier.

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reuvenJan 2014

Yes, one of the problems with China seems not only to be that the party is corrupt, and encourages corruption, but that it is immune from investigation and punishment.

I read a book this summer about the Chinese Communist Party (http://www.amazon.com/The-Party-Secret-Chinas-Communist/dp/0...), and was rather surprised to find that the party exists outside of the Chinese legal system. So there's this entire apparatus that cannot, under Chinese law, be investigated, sued, or otherwise held accountable.

I think that it's somewhat inevitable that power without accountability will lead to massive corruption -- all the more so when you're dealing with a country as immense as China, which has accumulated such wealth in recent years.

I find it easy to believe that some wealthy Chinese, unsure of when the party (so to speak) will be over, and when they might be accused (rightfully or not) of corruption, just decide to leave.

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