Party Time

A ground-breaking book of reportage and analysis about what is surely the world's most powerful institution: the Chinese Communist Party. Who is running China? Where does real power lie? In Party Time, Rowan Callick goes behind the scenes to reveal the workings of its political elite. A century after its underground beginnings, the Communist Party today exerts remarkable control. From neighbourhood disputes to the highest levels of the army,...
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A ground-breaking book of reportage and analysis about what is surely the world's most powerful institution: the Chinese Communist Party.

Who is running China? Where does real power lie? In Party Time, Rowan Callick goes behind the scenes to reveal the workings of its political elite.

A century after its underground beginnings, the Communist Party today exerts remarkable control. From neighbourhood disputes to the highest levels of the army, bureaucracy, commerce and the courts, it governs nearly every corner of Chinese life. Far from mellowing, today's party leadership is as focused as ever on strengthening its role and silencing dissent. But how prepared is it for the challenges it faces, and what will its success or failure mean for China and its role in the world?

Party Time is an essential and eye-opening account of this poorly understood but hugely influential player in world politics.

"Party Time is a remarkable portrait of China today. Rowan Callick writes with a twofold strength: 1) the outstanding quality of his information drawn mostly from the source: the Chinese people themselves (officials and dissenters, millionaires and paupers, artists, students, country people, urbanites, old and young) ­and 2) a rare ability not to draw conclusions, but to raise the questions that truly matter, with a subtle mixture of clear-sightedness, awe and human compassion." - Simon Leys

'This new book [on China] by Callick, several years in preparation, is right up there with the best of them. If anything, it is better than the others in at least one respect: it provides a more fascinatingly diverse portrait gallery of contemporary individuals in China than any of the others.' - the Australian

'A disturbing glimpse of life in the 21st century' - Herald Sun

'This is an astute, extended journalistic examination of power in China today, as well as the paradoxical nature of China itself.' the Age

Rowan Callick is the author of Party Time and Comrades and Capitalists. He is Asia-Pacific editor for the Australian and was previously a Beijing-based China correspondent.