Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World

by Clive Hamilton, Mareike Ohlberg

‘Heavily sourced, crisply written and deeply alarming.’ The Times ‘This is a remarkable book with a chilling message.’ Guardian The Chinese Communist Party is determined to reshape the world in its image. Its decades-long infiltration of the West threatens democracy, human rights, privacy, security and free speech. Throughout North America and Europe, political and business elites, Wall Street, Hollywood, think tanks, universities and the Chinese diaspora are being manipulated with money, pressure and privilege. Hidden Hand reveals the myriad ways the CCP is fulfilling its dream of undermining liberal values and controlling the world.

Genres: China, Politics, Nonfiction, History, International Relations, Economics, Political Science

632 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 16, 2020

About the author

Clive Hamilton AM FRSA is an Australian public intellectual and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University. He is a member of the Board of the Climate Change Authority of the Australian Government, and is the Founder and former Executive Director of The Australia Institute. He regularly appears in the Australian media and contributes to public policy debates. Hamilton was granted the award of Member of the Order of Australia on 8 June 2009 for "service to public debate and policy development, particularly in the fields of climate change, sustainability and societal trends".


(From Wikipedia.)

Reviews

[Antigone · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many voices in Australia currently sounding the alarm about the CCP. This would be the Chinese Communist Party, which differs in great degree from the Chinese people - although the Party would prefer you not pay too much attention to that. Yet the distinction is important. Especially in an age when the charge of racism is being conscientiously applied to systems and behaviors. The Chinese Communist Party likes to use such charges to further their reach into Western domains, and if clarifications are made between opposing an authoritarian system of government versus opposing equal rights for a race of human beings, well, that's going to throw a wrench into the works of the CCP's blueprint for world domination.

Australia is taking these distinctions very seriously, no doubt because it is struggling to combat the very real infiltration of Communist operatives, Communist funding, and assorted Communist stratagems throughout the fabric of its society. Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg have written a book to let other nations know this is not an isolated intrusion. Your country is currently experiencing this as well. And they go on to tell you how. In detail.

This book is less a tale of the Chinese Communist Party's incursion into Western countries than it is a literal accounting of it - meaning the text reads very much like a directory of names, corporations, institutions, relationships, and enterprises that have already been influenced and/or infiltrated by the CCP's operatives and philosophical persuasions. From government figures to financial companies, media outlets, colleges, think tanks, the arts and more; a host of identities are revealed and connections bared that should, in fact, concern us. It's a very dry approach to conveying information that triggers the reader's instinct to scan, but that doesn't make its content any less relevant. Or shocking.

Those interested in tracking the Communist footprint as it travels through the networks of the modern world, should probably take a look at this.

[Sean Neun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read this book in German as the English edition will only be released in September.
I came across it after having read more about the techniques of the Chinese communist party.
This book is deeply unsettling especially considering that we are living in this global reality in which they are claiming more and more rights.
I am left wanting to participate in protest and wanting to become an advocate for those suffering under the Chinese system.
So there you have it. This is a book confronts you with an evil that needs to be beaten and it makes a clear distinction between the regime and the humans actually suffering from it themselves.

[Oleh Bilinkevych · Rating 4 out of 5]

Наповнений фактами огляд того, як Комуністична партія Китаю проникає в західний світ і потроху зміцнює свій вплив на всіх рівнях (політика, економіка, медіа, технології, медицина, освіта). Насправді, їхня політика добре виважена і продумана, адже свої механізми впливу вони вкорінювали ще декілька десятиліть тому.
Більше того, вони чудово грають на людських слабкостях. Гроші та жадібність - ключові факторами здатності Китаю досягати своїх цілей.
Прикро усвідомлювати, що в навіть в державах, які мають чітку антикомуністичну позицію, як от Британія чи Франція не захищені від впливу партії Сі, адже внутрішньо присутні як політичні так і економічні сили, які вже довгий час сидять під ковпаком КПК.

[Aurelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some time should be taken for reading this book. The international entanglement and rapidly growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party is extremely complex and multifaceted.
In order to really understand what connections exist within the party apparatus, of course, it takes more than just this one book by Clive Hamilton.
To get an insight into this topic and to develop an idea of how far the CCP is already anchored in almost every area of the western world, the book is quite suitable.

[Sense Hofstede · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book’s contribution is putting together a comprehensive list of important and worrying facts and events. However, unfortunately it is not much more than that. All the points are simply strung together, often with little care, leading to some mistakes. There is little theory to guide the argument nor reflection on how impactful certain connections really are. There is no appraisal of the complicated interplay between Party and agents, who often have their own interests to use each other. What we have are the research notes that would be the starting point for a more carefully ordered and precisely formulated inquiry into what the CCP is attempting to do and how effective that really is.

[Mark O'mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for detail but 3 for writing style. I’d doubt there is any book more thoroughly revealing the clear intent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government and the ways in which that intent is supported directly by CCP actions in the West. The culpability of western governments; Wall Street, London, Berlin, French etc business leaders; ex Presidents & PMs; practically all universities, Hollywood, the NBA, media, the UN etc etc etc in dealing with the CCP in ignorance (the kindest interpretation) is stark and revealing to greed and a lack of true commitment to freedom and human rights. Talk is cheap (celebrities, politicians, sports stars) but when the rubber hits the road and dollars are a stake their actions toward the CCP talk louder than their moral virtue signalling.
This book is essential reading, jammed packed in every paragraph with detail also a bit of a grind but a necessary one. The book reveals a CCP that knows exactly what it wants, what it is doing and how it aims to achieve it. It isn’t hard to argue, based on this book’s evidence, that the political, business, cultural, academic and intellectual elites in the West are be comprehensively played by the CCP. Given the value the CCP puts in freedom, human life & dignity this is bad news indeed.

[Owlseyes]

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/202...

Or, the hidden hand of the red 🐼

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a forensic examination of the ideology, doctrine, organisation, execution, and effect of the Chinese Communist Party's decades-long infiltration of 'the West,' and the threat this poses to the stability of our countries. Popularly written but rigorously researched, this is no anti-China screed: it's a very specific Red Alert that the CCP's political programme is shrouded by our very openness, has leveraged the West's insatiable greed, and has turned these two elements back on ourselves. We've only recently woken up in Australia to the fact that our party political system has been white-anted by the CCP, and our Chinese Australian community (and the core logic of multi-cultural harmony) subverted by CCP operatives through a combination of persuasion, ignorance, menacing, money, overwhelm, nationalist propaganda, charm, and sheer organisation. In the most egregious case, the young Chinese Australia businessman Bo 'Nick' Zhao was probably murdered in March 2019 after courageously reporting to our security services CCP attempts to inveigle him into the electoral system. But this is just the pointiest end of a huge, well-funded, militarised effort to achieve the CCP's domestic stability by delivering prosperity and security to the Chinese people. The CCP programme can be well understood because they've written their theory and intentions down and it's all very public, if poorly understood because of sheer scale and audacity. It uses the Maoist strategy of "the country surrounding the city," and what has been running for decades is now supercharged by the velocity of China's economic rise. We tend to think of the media, politicians, business, finance, academia, think-tanks, ordinary communities, spy agencies, the military, the arts and culture, and religious institutions as discrete social pods, necessarily separated for their individual efficiency and the well-being of our socio-political system. Domestically, the CCP clearly does not, and this command and control system now extends, in the most apparently benign guise, across the West. It's in the media, academia and research, huge business enterprises and, most worryingly, in our own "useful idiots" – political and ex-military – who have swallowed the bait, taken the CCP's shilling, and are now so embedded in the CCP/China discourse that they can't or won't retreat.

[Lorelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently in Melbourne #lockdown2020v2, Stage 4 a.k.a. State of Disaster!

(SPOILER ALERT)

SHORT BOOK SUMMARY: Hidden Hand - exposing how the Chinese Communist Party is reshaping the world by Clive Hamilton.

Quote from the book, “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them” (Lenin).

1. Is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reshaping the world? - Yes, very much so!

2. Is there a hidden hand? - Yes, everywhere, globally.

3. How is it reshaping the world? - Infiltration of Universities/academics, Social Media, News outlets, Politics/politicians/elections, International Organisations, NGOs and Chinese diaspora and The United Front Work Party.

4. What strategies does the CCP use?
- European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN): reshaping global governance by influence
- NGOs: those spruiking only China-positive rhetoric (CCP funded)
- Chinese Sister cities across the world: soft economic influence
- Confucius Institutes in Universities: blackmailing Universities/Academics
- Army of “50c CCP trolls” on all social media
- Many Politicians, Think Tanks, Chinese Companies and Private Sector linked to CCP (e.g. think Gladys Liu and Sam Dastyari for Australia).
- Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): a foreign policy and economic strategy used by CCP as golden handcuffs for economic blackmail.

5. Should Australia be worried? - Yes, very, as it is a huge Sovereign Risk.

6. What is the solution? - “The CCP like to operate in the shadows, and sunlight is often the best disinfectant”. If you see it, say something (many wont due to “relationships”).

7. Is this a huge concern now? - Yes, the CCP are embedded in Australia and entrenched in all aspects of society (and Globally think Germany and Canada).

End with a quote from the book: “The Anaconda in the chandelier” by Perry Link.
“Normally the great snake doesn’t move. It doesn’t have to. It feels no need to be clear about its prohibitions. Its constant silent message is “You yourself decide,” after which, more often than not, everyone in its shadow makes his or her large and small adjustments all quite “naturally”.”

[Nick Lucarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for content, 3 for execution.

A frightening read into the way in which the CCP has expanded its influence abroad in the past 50 years by targeting governments, universities, the Chinese diaspora, media outlets, international organisations and businesses, often behind the guise of non-state actors that, on closer inspection, all are proxies for the CCP. Through a combination of bullying, censorship and bribery of organisations and sectors over which it holds or has gained influence, the Party has silenced many of its critics and sought to rewrite its narritive in the eyes of the West. With that being said, it is important not to conflate the CCP with its people or the state of China when criticising it.

Unfortunately this book is written with the enthusiasm and passion of a flaccid erection. If countless acronyms, dizzyingly complex webs and chains of command and lists of Western and Oriental figures involved in this cold war are your aphrodisiac, then it may leave you more satisfied than it did me.

[David Canford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an eye-opener. I skimmed through a fair amount of it as there is so much detail to absorb, but the central message came through loud and clear. The Chinese Communist Party, CCP, is putting enormous resource into controlling the narrative about China and its goals.
Not only do western politicians fail to challenge it - who knew that Senate leader Mitch McConnell, married to the daughter of a wealthy Chinese businessman who has given the couple millions, absents himself from the floor when resolutions critical of China are to be voted on? Across the political spectrum, many well-known names are supportive of the Communist Party’s narrative.
The same goes for business - Apple and VW to name but two - which turns a blind eye to safeguard their trade in China. The CCP has also made significant inroads into western media and funded many western universities so that it has a lever to stop them criticising China thus preventing academic freedom of expression. There seems little good news here - China’s ability to repress and misrepresent the truth appears to be growing ever stronger. It kidnaps its citizens who dare to reveal the truth from foreign countries and intimidates Chinese immigrants in other countries into towing the party line.
One bright spot was the refusal of the Mayor of Prague to be browbeaten. As part of twinning his city with Beijing, China was insisting on the Mayor affirming that Taiwan was part of China. He refused on the grounds that twinning was a cultural, not political matter. Despite China’s threats that they would stop Chinese tourists visiting Prague, the Mayor refused and has twinned with Taipei instead.

[Ihor Kolesnyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Це книга про фактичного лідера осі зла. До 2019 року розповідь про те, як комуністична партія захоплювала різні важелі впливу, торгувалася, шантажувала і корумпувала західні інституції.
Думаю, це варто прочитати усім українцям, щоби зрозуміти, на якому боці ми глобально і чому китай годує роїсю в її кривавому бенкеті.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Wandel durch Handel“ ist eine der fatalsten Fehleinschätzungen westlicher Politiker. Die Vorstellung, materieller Wohlstand würde in der übrigen Welt durch die offensichtliche Überlegenheit westlicher Demokratien zur Demokratisierung führen, erwies sich als Illusion. Wirtschaftswachstum ist kein Antrieb demokratischer Prozesse. Eine Verbesserung des Konsumgüterangebots scheint die Mittelschichten Indiens und Chinas keineswegs zur Kritik zu animieren, sondern sie eher passiv und desinteressiert an Politik zurückzulassen. Wer als Gewinner der Verhältnisse selbst satt ist, zeigt kaum Interesse an Menschenrechten, Bildung und medizinischer Versorgung für alle. Man könnte die Fehleinschätzung auf kulturelle Überheblichkeit des Westens zurückführen, der sich und das eigene Modell für den Mittelpunkt der Welt hält. Der Mittelpunkt der Welt ist längst von China besetzt, das sich durch Wirtschaftskrisen und Konflikte westlicher Demokratien bestätigt sieht, das eigene System sei dem anderer Staaten überlegen.

Der häufigste Satz in Hamilton/Ohlbergs hochaktuellem Schwarzbuch chinesischen Einflusses lautet „Sie verstehen es nicht“. Ausländer verstehen nicht, dass die Kommunistische Partei Chinas nie eine Demokratisierung plante. Sie verstehen nicht, dass die eigenen Konzepte von Freundschaft, Volk oder Ordnung nicht 1:1 übertragbar sind und man sich mit den Sitten anderer Nationen auseinandersetzen sollte, ehe man dort Geschäfte macht. Dass „Freundschaft“ eine politische Formel sein kann mit der Erwartung streng ritualisierten Verhaltens, ist westlichen Besuchern häufig fremd. Besonders Politiker fallen mit der Unbedarftheit auf, mit der sie sich von Verhandlungspartnern über den Tisch ziehen lassen und sich gegen ein wenig Schmeichelei oder eine Ehrendoktorwürde das nationale „Tafelsilber“ abschwatzen lassen. Eine häufige Kommunikationsfalle ist für Ausländer neben der falschen Interpretation des Begriffes Freundschaft die Gleichsetzung Chinas mit dem chinesischen Volk unter Ignorierung des Einflusses der Einheitspartei.

Hamilton/Ohlberg befassen sich mit der Verflechtung wirtschaftlicher, politischer und kultureller Interessen, die so manchen Staat in eine Situation des No-Return gebracht hat, in der China bereits den zukünftigen Kurs bestimmt. Die aufgelisteten Verbindungen sind sorgfältig durch Quellenangaben belegt und stammen aus den USA, Australien, Kanada und Europa, auch aus Deutschland. Die Quellenangaben umfassen stolze 88 Seiten. Wenn konkret geschäftliche Interessen deutscher Politiker und Meinungsführer aufgelistet werden, ist das eindrucksvoller als Geschäfte chinesischer Politikerkinder.

Neben chinesischen Investition in ausländische Versorgungsbetriebe, Häfen und Pressekonzerne sehen die Autoren eine lange Liste an Sorgenkindern: Einfluss von Sponsoren auf Lehre und Forschung, Verstrickung der Eliten, Selbstzensur und vorauseilender Gehorsam auf allen Ebenen, die „geopolitsche Neuordnung“ durch die Neue Seidenstraße, Cyberattacken auf persönliche Daten, das 5G-Netz – all das unterlegt mit mangelhaften Chinakenntnissen und fragwürdigen Beratern.

Manche Urteile sind mir zu einseitig und klischeehaft in ihrer Kritik an der KPCh. Wer im Kontakt zu China aus Unkenntnis oder Selbstüberschätzung über den Tisch gezogen wird, ist selbst an der Situation nicht unbeteiligt. Politikern und ganzen Staaten ist durchaus zumutbar aus Blamagen ihrer Vorgänger zu lernen.

Das Buch ist akribisch recherchiert, auch für deutsche Leser interessant und mit Ereignissen bis ins Jahr 2020 zurzeit hochaktuell.

[Matt Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

How could two such fine thinkers do so much research and write such a poor book? Hidden hand is so clumsily put together it portrays itself as a polemic. While dense with diverse ‘facts‘ and examples, the content is poorly organised with almost no construction of argument. Hamilton and Ohlberg constantly jump between unconnected characters, businesses and political contexts. There is almost no balanced evaluation of a given example and the reader is rarely taken more than skin deep on an assertion. In an era where any critique of China is quickly dismissed as racist or regressive, Hamilton and Ohlberg should have known better....

[M N Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lacks Analysis and Commentary

This reads like a very long list of bullet points albeit written in the form of paragraphs. A real lack of critical analysis, commentary or any real conclusion - plus a total failure to join the dots.

The title promises a lot but the content delivers very little. Very disappointing indeed.

[Tom McGuire · Rating 2 out of 5]

The text was more like a catalog of information than a narrative of a relationship between nations. The authors did not give enough attention to the historical and cultural context of Chinese international relations. The authors have contributed to the destructive forces of cold war rather than showing how to avoid it.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an exceptional read.

Another really eye opening political science book. I'm really enjoying this genre.

Learned a lot.

Very interesting book.

Scary at times.

Interested in more?
Would recommend reading this alongside Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada, Stealth War: How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept, and Wilful Blindness: How a Criminal Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West.

4.7/5

[Валерій Калниш · Rating 3 out of 5]

Багатий фактичний матеріал про організаційну структуру, завдяки якій Китай впливає на світ. Іноді здається що ти читаєш телефоний довідник - тільки назва і керівник. Ті, хто не знав, але здогадувався про намагання Китаю підкорити світ можуть бути шоковані розмахом трагедії.

Між тим є декілька моментів, які залишилися непропрацьованими.

1. Критикуючи Китай за вплив, автори не дуже багато пишуть про те, навіщо цей вплив йому потрібен. Що би що? Яким може бути світ в китайській версії?

2. Зовсім нічого немає про відносини між Китаєм та рф. Це б додало розуміння в те, як можна протистояти пі***ам.

3. Так само мало пишиться взагалі про можливості зменшення впливу Китаю, протистоянню йому.

Здається, головна думка книги така: Пекін не можливо змінити і наше завдання - максимально зберегти себе і одразу як буде зафіксований намір Китаю вийти за рамки ділових відносин, бити його по руках. Так собі стратегій. Це як ховатися за камінь коли йде морська хвиля, а після того як вона пройшла, витерти обличчя і чекати на нову.

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting discussion of the CCP’s influence in western countries. Each chapter offered an insight into a different area where the CCP is influencing western democracies, and offers strategies to counter this influence.

On the whole, I felt this book to be rather repetitive of some of its main points, with each chapter reading as a statement of intent followed by countless examples, with little analysis. While an important topic, I feel the author could have refined the writing itself a bit more and offered more nuance in places.

[Harry Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Vancouver, Canada, a young lady who worked in the stock room of the city's luxury goods stores became, within a short time, one of the store's top salesperson, because she speaks Mandarin and could converse with the wealthy PRC customers.

Indeed, such is the economic clout of many from the People's Republic of China. Indeed, it is difficult for governments, institutions, and individuals to say no to money, or power, or popularity.

But this is what we must do, if we even have a chance to stop China's aggressive stance to infiltrate and influence every aspect of our lives.

We must thank the authors for writing this exhaustively researched and well-written volume. In spite of these known threats that China poses, many people, for reasons of self interest or pure greed, fall prey to China's overtures.

It is amazing how anyone who even comments on China's many gross human rights violations would be accused of racism or xenophobia. We must make clear that what we are fighting is the system, and not the race. And what is race anyway? Someone might look Chinese, but was born in Paris, or London, or Sydney, and do not feel any allegiance towards or affection for China. And yet according to the infinite wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party, THEY are the ones to decide who is Chinese. This has shades of the infamous words of Vienna mayor Karl Lueger around the time of World War II, "I will decide who is a Jew!"

Let's all take a stand and say a resounding "no" to China. We don't want your money, and we don't want your propaganda.

The fight is difficult and often dangerous, but it is time we take a stand against this "bully of Asia" (the title of another excellent volume on the PRC by Steven Mosher).

Remember, we often underestimate dictators before it is too late. Let us act before it is too late.

[Theo Rooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very dense but concise look into how much the Chinese Communist Party have embedded themselves into all of our institutions. Really does get you a bit concerned about where it’s all going.

It’s so full of information and examples, but I would’ve liked it to go further into the things western countries and people can do to reverse these issues. It touches on it in the afterword, but it would’ve been nice to get a bit more detail.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very convincing case for the dangers for western democracies in allowing the Chinese Communist Party to spread it's influence. The author's arguments are well backed up by evidence. Scary stuff.

[Anish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its more like a theses of CCP's link to academicia,investment firms and think tanks.

Its a good read if you are interested with CCP's functioning, but it may be boring at certain points.

[WIlliam Gerrard · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a committed sinophile, this recently written book seemed a necessity. As China continues its rise to being the most dominant national force economically on the planet, it is quite difficult to obtain meaningful and relevant and unbiased factual information about its thoughts and the thoughts of its governing Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Aside from the political Iron Curtain, there is the language barrier. I studied Mandarin Chinese language at the Confucius Institute at Cardiff University for three years so have some basic linguistic and cultural understanding. This book is alike a definitive manual of people involved with the CCP internationally, its many umbrella organisations and its often discrete methods that it uses in order to obtain influence. I can see me often referring back to this book in the future for some of its well-researched detail. I did sometimes find a bias against the CCP and cannot see this book getting published in the mother country. Just the mention of the dreaded 'Three T's alone should suffice: (Tibet, Taiwan, Tianamen). The cast of international politicians linked in some way, often financially to the CCP was totally shocking. I was surprised to read of more Conservative Party involvement with China than indeed the more obvious socialist Labour Party. One thing is for sure, is that the CCP global reach is unilaterally widespread and with its full arsenal of orgs designed specifically to enhance the CCP and its broadening widescoping foreign policy it is certainly good to have this detailed out in print. I am totally blown away by the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) and see it as being the most significant international global event over the next several decades. For me, being a Confucius Institute alumnus, I loved the chapters devoted to education. I believe that it is critically important for as many people as possible to open the doors to China by learning Mandarin Chinese. It is a beautiful language that is destined to replace English as the global lingua franca of business. I have currently raised some issues with my MP Jessica Morden (Labour), MS John Griffiths (Labour) and David Davis (Conservative). Liz Truss has announced that she intends to throw the Confucius Institute system out of the U.K. and replace the mainland Chinese teachers with the overseas Taiwan education program. I think this just demonstrates Miss Truss' clear lack of ability to guide the U.K. sensibly and would be devastating to future generations of our education system as well as crippling our economy on a global scale. I am hoping that the local democratically elected politicians that I have approached can coherently persuade Prime Minister Liz Truss to come to her senses specifically over the Confucius Institute matter. I look forward to researching some of the material I have read and let's hope that I can somehow grasp the intricacies of Ji Xinping thought.

[Muqaddas Shahzadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at 50%. In terms of research, this book is a solid five stars, but my God is it dense. The authors make valid points at the beginning of every chapter and then continue to just list examples non-stop. This reads less like a book than 200 pages of facts, and the format just isn’t retainable. I think the contents would have been better delivered by having fewer examples which are then analysed and elaborated on to fully explore the implications of the CCP’s actions. The non-stop fact listing made me dread every time I picked this up because there’s only so many lines of that that can be read before I just couldn’t focus properly.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is in many ways a groundbreaking piece of work. I don't think anyone's ever published anything quite like it. I found it fascinating and read it twice, taking notes the second time, and producing a review that can be found here:

Battling Beijing’s Global Influence Network: A Lost Cause?

My only criticism is that it does not address CCP infiltration of grassroots organizations and movements, only elites. Even at the local level, the book still focuses on elites. But connections between, for example, the Chinese Progressive Association and Chinese Consulate-General in San Francisco deserve a closer look, especially after the violence and election tumult in America in 2020. The book does, after all, cite several Chinese consulates and embassies around the world as the focal points of influence and subversion. There is a connection, for example, between Black Lives Matter and the Chinese Progressive Association, as there is between Black Lives Matter and Liberation Road, a Maoist entity that has become involved in US electoral politics. Perhaps a subsequent edition might cover these issues.

[Curtis E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense and tedious read packed with information and well resourced.

[Alex Petty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the most reliably written book I have ever read. I’ve never seen so many quality cited sources before. To be honest, I had to read this for school…but I don’t regret it.

[Dr. Christopher M Rayner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alarming summary of the triumph of tyranny over liberty.

A worrying detailed review of the degree to which the Chinese Communist Party has penetrator and seeks to control Western institutions and governments. Democracy appears to be under siege by a police state and the senior guardians appear content to take bribes from the enemy to hand them the keys to the state.