(The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, by Richard McGregor, 273pp)

It’s depressing to realize how 273 tiny pages can raise the ire of the humongous Chinese Communist Party and kick up such a colossal domestic fuss, yet veteran journalist Richard McGregor’s latest work of investigative prose succeeded in doing exactly that.

Going deep behind Zhongnanhai “enemy lines” in a way few foreign scribblers or Zhongguotong — those cliched “Old China Hands” — would ever dare to (on fear of reprisals from PRC authorities), McGregor serves up a red hot zinger of an indictment on the inner-workings of China’s Big Red Machine, the party tugging the levers of power inside the authoritarian capitalist country.

The book is the work of more than a decade of silent toil and research by the relentless Australian, a journalist who traveled to and fro between the PRC, Hong Kong, and his native Land of Oz, with family in tow, as he compiled interview after painstaking off-the-record interview for this comprehensive tell-all.

To be sure, The Party’s already been banned across China; yet, then again, we fully expected it would be and, come to think of it, doesn’t it kind of add to its cachet in a very Zhao Ziyang-esque sort of way (let us know in the comments below!).

What kind of illicit treasures can be found inside this latest oeuvre of CCP criticism, you ask? What in tarnation is so taboo, you want to know? I mean, what exactly is the Central Committee so goshdarn afraid of?

All good starting questions…

McGregor — like other so-called “China experts” — knows several of the answers. All of this tracks back to that “sum of all fears” for the Chinese Communist Party: the fear of losing total control of the state apparatus and helplessly witnessing as the nation-state reverts back into the pre-revolutionary Armageddon-like times which reigned supreme during Chiang’s rule.

The CCP, oddly enough, permits practically anything and everything that doesn’t directly clash with its interests or harm its preeminent position within Chinese society.

This is the reason why, for instance, visitors to China can observe such things as LGBT bars in the ‘jing, yet no organized national gay pride parade exists for China. This is also the reason why Chinese citizens are legally permitted to freely practice their chosen form of religion…provided they link up with one of China’s wholly (holy?) state-sponsored places of worship, be it a church, a mosque, or a Buddhist shrine. Say you’re a Roman Catholic? No problemo, provided you don’t recognize the Pontiff as your spiritual shogun with the lone direct hookup to the Man Upstairs. A proud and practicing Muslim? Cool beans, so long as you don’t buy into the drivel Rebiya Khadeer has been popularizing in the Western mass media. And, oh yeah, you can’t be a member of that group with its first initial before the letter “G.”

The basic “silent agreement” between the State and these various religious acolytes is that all must avoid demonstrating for greater faith-based openness in that Big Square which sprawls out in front of the Forbidden City — yeah, that one. Or else!

Crazy Eights:

McGregor unfurls his argument in eight exquisite chapters. He deems these to be the eight key areas in which the CCP’s influence pervades Chinese society. In order:

1. The CCP’s relationship towards the Chinese State.
2. The CCP’s capitalist leanings in the wake of the Deng-era (aka, “China Inc.”).
3. The CCP’s iron-fisted control of its personnel files.
4. The CCP’s relationship towards the People Liberation Army (PLA).
5. The CCP’s total dominance by “The (notorious) Shanghai Gang.”
6. The CCP’s relationship with towns and regions far away from Beijing.
7. The CCP’s capitalist shell surrounding its so-called “socialist” core.
8. Tombstone:  The book which revealed the true death toll from Mao’s Great Leap Forward (>30 million citizens).

Salient Points:

Rather than supply a detailed breakdown of all eight chapters — thereby ruining the fun for you, dear reader, as you track down your illicit copy of The Party — why don’t I summarize what you can expect to find in each, thereby whetting your chops for the bigger feast to come?

1. The CCP’s relationship towards the Chinese State: Nothing that happens in China occurs without the CCP’s blessing. Any organization, body, association, business, and/or any dealing with any foreign power — either in the Southeast Asian region or internationally — always occurs via the CCP’s direct intervention. Party membership is coveted by business types as it affords them access and needed connections. The Party bills itself as the preeminent force preventing China from teetering back into Century of Humiliation-like anarchy. Like an octopus, and in emulation of Lenin’s dictates about the Communist Party of the Soviet Union being everywhere at all times, the CCP penetrates every facet of Chinese society.
2. The CCP’s capitalist leanings in the wake of the Deng-era (aka, “China Inc.”): Being accepted into the CCP’s ranks is no mere ideological progression. Rather, it’s a step up the ladder of corporate and commercial success in China. Former State-owned enterprises that were gradually privatized are still run by a silent cabal of Party loyalists who duly take their instructions from on high in Beijing, despite any decisions these firms’ various boards of directors or CEOs might make regarding the strategic direction of the company they preside over. The Party always has final say. And a company director can always be overruled by the most senior Party member on the board. CEOs carrying membership also receive the coveted “red hotline” in their offices, the direct line from Beijing. Their phone numbers are so exclusive, that they’re limited to just four digits. And when that red box rings, you better pick up.
3. The CCP’s iron-fisted control of its personnel files: Being in total command of information flows is also a key CCP characteristic: all the better to avoid unexpected media leaks or to parties with an aim to toppling the CCP’s legitimacy via a coup. Personnel files are fiercely guarded in Beijing-area buildings that don’t even carry distinctive visitor-friendly markings on the outside. The merits and demerits of its several thousand members — hand-written on paper cards — still remains one of the nation’s most fiercely guarded secrets. The Party uses these cards to award concessions, favors, or privileges or to dole out punishment to its adherents and members.
4. The CCP’s relationship towards the People Liberation Army (PLA): The PLA exists solely to safeguard the Party, not the Chinese people and neither the integrity of the Chinese state. Believe me when I tell you these various strapping youths are expressly recruited for their stature and capacity to intimidate. I witnessed with my own eyes how these Tiananmen Guards strike fear into thousands of onlookers because at whose behest they serve (i.e. the Party’s). The PLA remains the Party’s vanguard force, tasked with protecting the Party from all threats both from within and from without.
5. The CCP’s total dominance by “The (notorious) Shanghai Gang:” Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin was the exemplar of the might of Shanghai politics in the Communist Party’s upper ranks. Once he become President back in October 1992, Jiang moved quickly to entrench Shanghai’s position amongst the capital’s power elites. Shanghai went from being the bastard child of the new People’s Republic — the city most despised by the Communist Party for all it represented during the interwar period — to a thriving, thoroughly-modern colossus. It’s no mere coincidence that Shanghai and its gorgeous Bund views are the most recognizable thing about China outside of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
6. The CCP’s relationship with towns and regions far away from Beijing: The infamous Sanlu (“Three Deers”) melamine scandal, in which a form of plastic was added in lieu of protein to bolster the consistency of this company’s milk is a recent example of this. Regional Party members seek to leverage their power within rural Party fiefdoms strictly for gain. It’s what one anonymous Chinese blogger called the “black-collar class: their cars are black. Their income is hidden. Their life is hidden. Their work is hidden. Everything about them is hidden, like a man wearing black, standing in the black of the night.” A ranking compiled by most popular Chinese portal sina.com of the numbers of people seeking information about particular government jobs revealed that “…of the top ten government bodies which received the most expressions of interest for positions, eight were provincial tax bureaux, topped by Guangdong, all of them along the prosperous coast; and two were customs bureaux of Shanghai and Shenzhen. The bottom ten which attracted the least interest, were all provincial statistics bureaux.” With Beijing so far from the regions, who notices when things go awry until it’s too late?
7. The CCP’s capitalist shell surrounding its so-called “socialist” core: The Party in 2010 isn’t the same Party of Mao. In fact, today’s CCP bears little resemblance to the revolutionary mass organization which won the hearts of WWII-weary Chinese citizens back in the late 1940s. This is a more business-oriented party. Fully corrupt. Swayed by profit. Droning on fulsomely about its socialist roots and leanings, meanwhile it erects ever-larger, ever more luxurious, and ever-megalomaniacal infrastructure projects across the breadth of China. Now that the government is flush with cash, it’s begun spending on the population: roads and hospitals, for instance, yet this is a relatively recent phenomenon.
8. Tombstone:  The book which revealed the true death toll from Mao’s Great Leap Forward (>30 million citizens): Tombstone: Yang Jisheng’s account of the true death toll from the Great Leap Forward. A fitting end for The Party because of how it handily summarizes the main themes of the previous chapters: the CCP’s rigid control of information as it forged data about the Great Leap. How the regions were quick to avail themselves of their distance from Beijing to falsely report only information Beijing wanted to hear. How the Party sought to silence those who has the power to knock it off its pedestal. Yet this intrepid Xinhua journalist — yes, an insider! — devoted fifteen years of his life to meticulously notate over one thousand pages of stats from regional bureaus as the core material for his book. McGregor cites the (only Hong Kong, for now) publication of Tombstone as an example of how the Party appears to be morphing over time. Yang’s heretical work would have surely been destroyed — with Yang himself likely imprisoned or killed by the state — more twenty years ago. Does this seemingly permissive act hold out future promise for the Chinese Communist Party? McGregor appears to want his readers to decide.

Should You Buy This Book?

Yes! Just don’t get arrested buying it. There’s enough incendiary information contained within its pages to fully indict the Party for its misdeeds, sundry corruptions, and other flagrant recent abuses of power. Short of a few random hardcover copies flitting around Beijing-area indie bookshops, don’t expect to find this on Chinese bookshelves — either in its original English or in translation — anytime soon.

For any aspiring China Hand, amateur Sinologist, or Sinophile, The Party makes for deeply engaging fare.

But for all you vets out there, this book will only serve to reinforce the message you already know that the CCP isn’t a object to be trifled with.

Spread the word:

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