Chun Han Wong has covered China for the Wall Street Journal since 2014. He was part of a team of reporters named as Pulitzer Prize finalists for their coverage of China's autocratic turn under Xi Jinping. As a Journal correspondent in Beijing and Hong Kong, Wong has written widely on subjects spanning elite politics, Communist Party doctrine, human and labor rights, and defense and diplomatic affairs. Born and raised in Singapore, Wong is a native speaker of English and Mandarin Chinese. He studied international history at the London School of Economics, where he graduated with first-class honors and won the Derby Bryce Prize.
"A thoughtful chronicle of China under Xi . . . Wong has a foreign
correspondent's eye for details illustrating deeper verities, but
he never loses sight of the historical context, and often
supplements his observations with perceptive digressions into
China's imperial past." --Los Angeles Review of Books
"Meticulously researched . . . Wong is a sharp observer of soft
authoritarian power and the apparatus of the absolutist state. . .
. The book is particularly strong on Xi's manipulation of power
once he won office, purging generals and cadres, laying waste to
the party's rank and file in a supposed campaign against its
universal corruption as well as changing the constitution so that
he could rule for life. . . . Excessive power, as the book shows,
can end up making its holder weak." --The Sunday Times (UK)
"Chun Han Wong's account of Xi's life, Party of One, is compelling
and informative. . . . Xi is a hard figure to pin down, but Wong
does an able job of taking what we do know about his political life
and extrapolating it. . . . He is hard to read, but trying to
fathom his thinking will be important for many years to come.
Wong's thoughtful book is a useful gateway into his mind." --Rana
Mitter, Literary Review
"During five years in Beijing for The Wall Street Journal, Chun Han
Wong emerged as one of the best shoe-leather reporters covering the
politics of the high Xi Jinping era. . . . The journalistic balance
and careful sourcing are the strengths of Wong's book." --Global
Asia
"Chun Han Wong's Party of One brings the best of investigative
journalism--telling detail, unforgettable color, and intelligent
rigor--to the question of the world's most powerful person (by far)
and the effect of his political dominance on China's next
chapters." --Ian Bremmer, author of The Power of Crisis
"More than a decade into the era of Xi Jinping, readers ask, 'Why
are there so few penetrating books on China's leader?' The answer
is that the Communist Party deems even Xi's birth date too
sensitive to disclose. But now, the skilled and energetic
journalist Chun Han Wong has drawn on an impressive range of
reporting and sources to craft a superb, readable, illuminating
portrait of the man and his times. A must-read for China veterans
and amateurs alike." --Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition:
Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
"A respected journalist combines history, headlines, and personal
reflections in a careful analysis of China's leader-for-life. . . .
A penetrating and timely unraveling of the personality and impact
of a strongman president." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Chun Han Wong provides a vivid and credible picture of political
life under Xi Jinping's Communist Party autocracy, drawing upon
five years of on-the-ground reporting in mainland China before he
was forced out in 2019. Particularly valuable are the details he
reveals of how the leader has used the party's discipline, internal
security, and legal agencies to intimidate officialdom and control
society, and his interviews with the individuals who were
targeted." --Susan L. Shirk, author of Overreach: How China
Derailed Its Peaceful Rise
"Chun Han Wong does a masterful job of scrutinizing Xi Jinping's
impact on China and placing Xi's first ten years in power in the
context of the broader arc of Chinese history. Through extensive
research and interviews with PRC citizens from all walks of life,
he reveals in vivid detail the ways in which Xi Jinping's policies
have altered China's evolutionary path, affected the lives of its
people, and shaped China's relations with the rest of the world.
Party of One brims with insights into the multitude of
contradictions that make up Xi's China. It's a captivating read for
anyone seeking to more deeply understand China in the Xi Jinping
era." --Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director, Indo-Pacific Program,
German Marshall Fund of the US
"In a crowded marketplace of books about Xi Jinping's China, Party
of One stands head and shoulders above its competitors. Chun Han
Wong has combined rigorous investigative skills with a forensic
grasp of an opaque political system to produce an enthralling
portrait of the leader, and the party, that sits atop the world's
emerging superpower." --Richard McGregor, author of The Party and
Asia's Reckoning
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
