About the Author

Jasper Becker reported from Beijing from 1985 to 1989 for the Guardian. Until May 2002, he was Beijing Bureau Chief of Hong Kong's English-language South China Morning Post. His first book, on Mongolia, was The Lost Country (1992); his second book Hungry Ghosts (1996) is an award-winning account of the famine kept secret by Mao from 1958 to 1962. The Chinese (2000) was hailed as the best single-volume introduction to China and its people. His most recent book, Rogue Regime (2004), is his latest title, focussing on North Korea.