Description

From one of the most admired reporters covering China today a vital new account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping the authoritarian leader of the Peoples Republic whose hardedged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies

Party of One shatters the many myths that shroud one of the worlds most secretive political organizations and its leader Many observers misread Xi during his early years in power projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness rule of law and promarket economics Having masked his beliefs while climbing the party hierarchy Xi has centralized decisionmaking powers encouraged a cult of personality around himself and moved toward indefinite rule by scrapping presidential term limitsstirring fears of a return to a Maostyle dictatorship Today the party of Xi favors political zeal over technical expertise trumpets its faith in Marxism and proclaims its reach into every corner of Chinese society with Xi portraits and hammerandsickle logos Under Xi China has challenged Western preeminence in global affairs and cast its authoritarian system as a model of governance worthy of international emulation

As a China reporter for The Wall Street Journal Chun Han Wong has chronicled Xi Jinpings hardline strategy for crushing dissent against his strongman rule his political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang and his increasingly coercive efforts to reel in the island democracy of Taiwan as well as the domestic and diplomatic fallout from the COVID19 pandemic When the Chinese government refused to renew Wongs press credentials and forced him to leave mainland China in 2019 he moved to Hong Kong to continue covering Chinese politics and its autocratic turn under Xi Now Wong has drawn on his years of firsthand reporting across Chinaincluding conversations with party insiders insights from scholars and diplomats and analyses of official speeches and documentsto create a lucid and historically rooted account of Chinas leader and how he inspires fear and fervor in his party his nation and beyond

A penetrating and timely unraveling of the personality and impact of a strongman president Kirkus Reviews starred review Party of One explains how the future Xi imagines for China will reshape the future of the entire world