The Red Emperor – Michael Sheridan

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‘Michael Sheridan is one of the best informed and wisest writers on China’ – Chris Patten, last governor of Hong Kong

The Red Emperor presents an eye-opening portrait of Xi Jinping, the man who presides over 1.4 billion people and the second largest economy on earth. Born a ‘princeling’ to one of Communist China’s ruling families, the young Xi was exiled to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. He fought his way back to the top by stealth, privilege and guile. In 2012, following the spectacular fall of his rival Bo Xilai, Xi Jinping became the leader of China.

In a compulsively readable narrative, veteran foreign correspondent Michael Sheridan takes the reader from the poor, isolated country of Xi’s youth to the military and economic superpower of today. In Xi’s new China, family mafias struggle for power amid murder, corruption and sex scandals as ministers and generals vanish in purges. No one is safe in his techno-security state. Xi is an absolute ruler whose word is law on everything from war and peace to the ruthless campaign against Covid-19. He aims to dominate world trade, to defeat Western demacy and to make China the supreme power in the East. A loner and a risk-taker, he is the most consequential leader of our time.

Category:Biographies & Memoirs