China's New Rulers: The Secret Files

by Andrew J. Nathan, Bruce Gilley

At the Chinese Communist Party's 16th Congress in November 2002, a group of new leaders took over the world's most populous country. Their accession as the "Fourth Generation" of rulers of the People's Republic--following the generations of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin--signaled the end of a long, complex struggle for power.

Yet little has been known outside high Party circles about either that struggle or the men who emerged victorious from it. China's New Rulers, based on confidential Party files leaked to a Chinese writer abroad, offers an unprecedented glimpse into the most orderly succession in the turbulent history of the People's Republic. At its center are detailed descriptions of the nine men who will rule China for the next five years--their backgrounds, their characters, and their visions for the future. Among the challenges they will face are economic reform and China's integration into a global economy, pressures for political liberalization and human rights, ethnic unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang, the status of Taiwan, and relations with the US.

China's New Rulers is an extraordinary account of a high-level political drama that has largely taken place in secret. It portrays many key figures in the Party, government, and military, and provides new information on Jiang Zemin's thirteen years in office. Most importantly, it contains the first insights into matters of great importance to the West: who will lead China, what changes they may bring to their country, and how they may act as international partners and competitors.

Genres: China, Politics, History, Asia

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Andrew J. Nathan is Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. His teaching and research interests include Chinese politics and foreign policy, the comparative study of political participation and political culture, and human rights. He is engaged in long-term research and writing on Chinese foreign policy and on sources of political legitimacy in Asia, the latter research based on data from the Asian Barometer Survey, a multi-national collaborative survey research project active in eighteen countries in Asia.

Born on April 3, 1943, in New York City, Professor Nathan received his degrees from Harvard University: the B.A. in History, summa cum laude, in 1963; the M.A. in East Asian Regional Studies in 1965; and the Ph.D. in Political Science in 1971. He taught at the University of Michigan in 1970-71 and has been at Columbia University since 1971.

Reviews

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a translation, with commentary, of leaked portions of internal files compiled by the Chinese Communist Party to aid in its leadership selection process back during the last handover of power 10 years ago.

The information is quite dated, but it presents a fascinating look into how the Chinese Communist Party selects its leadership, the skills it values, the factional feuds, and the dynamics under which these feuds, and broader policies, unfold.

While the Tiananmen Papers were a look at the Deng-era government of China acting amidst a crisis, these files represent the party bureaucracy acting in a time of relative calm. I was impressed by the honesty with which the files were compiled (it takes a certain amount of honesty to admit that your future Supreme Leader had lackluster performance in his early career and his primary virtue was keeping his nose clean), and the factional alignments they detail gave enormous insight into Chinese politics (most particularly with reference to the Bo Xilai affair).

As with all primary source material, one has to pay some attention to the special perspective of the source, particularly since the reader is not the intended audience. Nathan and Gilley do a great job of putting in enough explanatory background material so that very little seems completely mysterious, but the reader can (and I almost certainly did!) miss some things.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very insightful about the inner workings of the high circles of the Chinese Communist Party. Briefly, the impression I received was the CCP as a completely authoritarian government who chooses its leaders based upon a combination of merit and cronyism. However, the textbook-style feel to the novel took away some of its potential enjoyment.

[Drew Mcfadzean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent context for the forthcoming 19th party Congress and a great look into the circumstances that led to the largely ineffectual Hu Jintao era.

[Chris Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got halfway through this but had to stop.. provides some pretty neat insights into what allegedly goes on behind the scenes with the selection of China's top politicians and pairs these with anecdotes from an anonymous observer. A good book if you have to read it, but a little dry if you're looking for a fun read.

[Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is 5 years out dated now that the 17th Party Congress just ended, but it gives really in depth background on many of the leaders that are still in power today.