''A revolutionary book'' Sunday Times''A pulsating account'' Peter Frankopan*A SPECTATOR AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR*How did the People-s Republic of China transform from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today? Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen archival documents, award-winning historian Frank Dik-tter recasts our understanding of an era that both the regime and foreign admirers alike celebrate as an economic miracle. In a fascinating tale spanning five decades, he examines the country-s economic transformation alongside the regime-s determined suppression of dissent, its increasing hostility towards the West and its development into a thoroughly entrenched dictatorship led by Xi Jinping - one equipped with a sprawling security apparatus and the most sophisticated surveillance system in the world.-Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what has shaped today-s China and what the Chinese Commu
