The principal force in awakening the people and setting them on the road to struggle, Liu Binyan argues, has been the repeated mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party and the outrageous bureaucratic corruption it has allowed to flourish. Even as he describes the runaway inflation that inflicts unfathomable hardship on all but the elite party officials, the increasing isolation and hypocrisy of the Communist leadership, or the political persecution of intellectuals and the press, Liu’s message is one of hope. This book—written in one man’s eloquent voice—is testimony to his belief that the need for democratic reform has taken root among the Chinese people and that they will ultimately take steps to transform their nation.

Liu Binyan offers a special perspective on contemporary China. He has been a prominent player in that country’s tumultuous political–social–literary history ever since the mid-1950s. His long experience as an investigative reporter for China Youth News and People’s Daily has afforded him a grasp of the details of Chinese social history that few can approach.
-- Perry Link, Princeton University