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Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity
Not yet published
Expected 24 Feb 26From renowned historian Frank Dikötter, a commanding history recasting how communists seized power in China.
In April 1927, soldiers and detectives descended upon the Russian Embassy in Beijing, revolvers drawn. An hour later, they emerged with a trove of documents, some of them partly damaged by Russians who had tried quickly to destroy them. In these singed and soggy papers was proof that Moscow, despite agreeing three years earlier not to “propagate communistic doctrines,” had, in fact, sent what amounts to millions in today's dollars, along with shiploads of arms and advisors to support nothing less than a revolution in China.
These findings are hardly ever mentioned by historians-until now. The history of modern China has long been framed as an organic enterprise, wherein Communists mobilized the “peasants,” took land from the rich and redistributed it to the poor. Drawing on the Beijing raid as well as several other overlooked archives, Red Star Over China reveals how unlikely a communist victory actually was, had it not been for massive financial and military support from the Soviet Union; a brutal war of occupation by Japan; severe miscalculations by the United States; and-most of all-the Party's unflinching will to conquer at all costs. Frank Dikötter reveals how what began in 1921 with thirteen delegates in a dusty room led to a red flag being raised over the Forbidden City in 1949, forever altering the course of history for a quarter of humanity and shaping the global balance of power as we know it today.
In April 1927, soldiers and detectives descended upon the Russian Embassy in Beijing, revolvers drawn. An hour later, they emerged with a trove of documents, some of them partly damaged by Russians who had tried quickly to destroy them. In these singed and soggy papers was proof that Moscow, despite agreeing three years earlier not to “propagate communistic doctrines,” had, in fact, sent what amounts to millions in today's dollars, along with shiploads of arms and advisors to support nothing less than a revolution in China.
These findings are hardly ever mentioned by historians-until now. The history of modern China has long been framed as an organic enterprise, wherein Communists mobilized the “peasants,” took land from the rich and redistributed it to the poor. Drawing on the Beijing raid as well as several other overlooked archives, Red Star Over China reveals how unlikely a communist victory actually was, had it not been for massive financial and military support from the Soviet Union; a brutal war of occupation by Japan; severe miscalculations by the United States; and-most of all-the Party's unflinching will to conquer at all costs. Frank Dikötter reveals how what began in 1921 with thirteen delegates in a dusty room led to a red flag being raised over the Forbidden City in 1949, forever altering the course of history for a quarter of humanity and shaping the global balance of power as we know it today.
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 24, 2026
2724 people want to read
About the author
Frank Dikötter
21 books533 followersFrank Dikötter (Chinese: 馮客; pinyin: Féng Kè) is the Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and Professor of the Modern History of China on leave from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Born in the Netherlands in 1961, he was educated in Switzerland and graduated from the University of Geneva with a Double Major in History and Russian. After two years in the People's Republic of China, he moved to London where he obtained his PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1990. He stayed at SOAS as British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and as Wellcome Research Fellow before being promoted to a personal chair as Professor of the Modern History of China in 2002. His research and writing has been funded by over 1.5 US$ million in grants from various foundations, including, in Britain, the Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Economic and Social Research Council and, in Hong Kong, the Research Grants Council and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.
He has published a dozen books that have changed the ways historians view modern China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992) to China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower (2022). His 2010 book Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe was selected as one of the Books of the Year in 2010 by The Economist, The Independent, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard (selected twice), The Telegraph, the New Statesman and the BBC History Magazine, and is on the longlist for the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
Born in the Netherlands in 1961, he was educated in Switzerland and graduated from the University of Geneva with a Double Major in History and Russian. After two years in the People's Republic of China, he moved to London where he obtained his PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1990. He stayed at SOAS as British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and as Wellcome Research Fellow before being promoted to a personal chair as Professor of the Modern History of China in 2002. His research and writing has been funded by over 1.5 US$ million in grants from various foundations, including, in Britain, the Wellcome Trust, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Economic and Social Research Council and, in Hong Kong, the Research Grants Council and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.
He has published a dozen books that have changed the ways historians view modern China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992) to China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower (2022). His 2010 book Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe was selected as one of the Books of the Year in 2010 by The Economist, The Independent, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard (selected twice), The Telegraph, the New Statesman and the BBC History Magazine, and is on the longlist for the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Red Dawn Over China by Frank Dikötter is one of those gateway books. There is a lot of information that will probably lead you to looking up a bunch of other books on specific moments from the narrative. However, this is a shotgun blast of knowledge which can be overwhelming at times.
Dikötter tells the story of how the Communist Party took over China. Starting in the early 1900s, Dikötter shows how this was not some sort of predestined ascendancy. Rather, this was a concerted effort by Russia and a healthy dose of hubris and overconfidence by their opponents. It was also brutal, callous, and done with an iron fist.
Dikötter throws a lot of stuff at the reader. I only have a vague understanding of this time period in China and the author fills in a lot of gaps. However, it is not in-depth especially with the characters, and I am sure scholars may find certain entries which are a bit too simplified. That said, there is clearly extensive research done, and Dikötter certainly did his homework. If you are like me and a bit ignorant of this time period in this part of the world, give it a read.
(This book was provided as a review copy by NetGalley and Bloomsbury Pub.)
Dikötter tells the story of how the Communist Party took over China. Starting in the early 1900s, Dikötter shows how this was not some sort of predestined ascendancy. Rather, this was a concerted effort by Russia and a healthy dose of hubris and overconfidence by their opponents. It was also brutal, callous, and done with an iron fist.
Dikötter throws a lot of stuff at the reader. I only have a vague understanding of this time period in China and the author fills in a lot of gaps. However, it is not in-depth especially with the characters, and I am sure scholars may find certain entries which are a bit too simplified. That said, there is clearly extensive research done, and Dikötter certainly did his homework. If you are like me and a bit ignorant of this time period in this part of the world, give it a read.
(This book was provided as a review copy by NetGalley and Bloomsbury Pub.)
Displaying 1 of 1 review