Era of Jiang Zemin, The

Rating:
Summary: good info, loopy writing
Review: A highly detailed and informative account of the current leadership's rise to power and preoccupations in keeping it. It's perhaps the best source on Beijing's current politics, so its a shame that the writing is so often loopy and unclear. The holes in the research are perhaps forgivable, considering the book's timeliness, but still regrettable.

Rating:
Summary: Detailed and Interesting
Review: This book gives a great short course on modern Chinese politics without being dry or bogged down in academic language. It's much easier to get through than Lam's last book, "China After Deng Xiaoping," which is a great reference but a little too detailed.

Especially interesting is Lam's description of Jiang's relationship with the military and how this relationship affected China's relations with the US and Taiwan.

As China faces a leadership transition in Beijing, Lam's book provides a useful insight into the balance of power among China's elite that will shape this transition.

Rating:
Summary: Detailed and Interesting
Review: This book gives a great short course on modern Chinese politics without being dry or bogged down in academic language. It's much easier to get through than Lam's last book, "China After Deng Xiaoping," which is a great reference but a little too detailed.

Especially interesting is Lam's description of Jiang's relationship with the military and how this relationship affected China's relations with the US and Taiwan.

As China faces a leadership transition in Beijing, Lam's book provides a useful insight into the balance of power among China's elite that will shape this transition.