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China is more than its cadres

A review of Cadre Country (John Fitzgerald)

Hi folks,

I recently wrote a book review for the Australian Foreign Affairs on China historian John Fitzgerald's new book Cadre Country (see below).

Fitzgerald argues that under Xi Jinping the Communist Party is cannibalising China's economy and society as it returns to its Leninist roots. The book claims to be an account of "How China became the Chinese Communist Party".

But even during the Socialist High Tide of 1955/1956 or the tumultuous decade of the Cultural Revolution, China was more - far more - than the Communist Party and its leaders and cadres. This remains true today.

- Adam