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Friends and Enemies:
The Past, Present and Future of the Communist Party of China
New Book, published July 1st 2009, Anthem Press
The Communist Party of China is the world's last remaining major Marxist Party still in control of a significant country. This book is an accessible history and assessment of the Party, retelling the extraordinary tale of how it was established in the 1920s, nearly destroyed in the 1930s by internal and external battles, and, under the ruthless and controversial leadership of Mao Zedong, became a key fighting force in the war against the Japanese, winning final victory over the country in 1949. The book tells of the stormy early decades of Communist rule in China, where initial hopes were replaced by the relentness political campaigns, culminating in the Cultural Revolution, during which Mao almost destroyed the very party he had been so instrumental in bringing to power. It looks at the period post-Mao, under the more pragmatic leadership of Deng, where the CCP reshaped and reevaluated itself, nearly being felled by student demonstrations in 1989, before reasserting itself in the last decade as a half as the most powerful entity in a country that has become the world's third largest economy. In the final two chapters, the major challenges facing the Party as it moves into the 21st century - energy security, environmental issues, and economical and social problems- are evaluated, with the final chapter offering a judgement on what the Party's likelihood is to survive, and how it might look twenty years from now.
Further details later.
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