The Party

The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

By: Richard McGregor

Narrated by: Matthew Waterson

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Party is Financial Times reporter Richard McGregor's eye-opening investigation into China's Communist Party, and the integral role it has played in the country's rise as a global superpower and rival to the United States. Many books have examined China's economic rise, human rights record, turbulent history, and relations with the US; none until now, however, have tackled the issue central to understanding all of these issues: how the ruling communist government works. The Party delves deeply into China's secretive political machine.

©2010 Richard McGregor (P)2020 Tantor

The content is good but the narrator is terrible

While some of the content is now a bit dated (the book is ten years old at this point), it is still helpful in providing an overview of Party workings. However, because the narrator cannot pronounce Chinese properly, it can be hard to follow the anecdotal stories that are described in the book. To be specific, the narrator is unable to differentiate pinyin initials z, zh, j, x, sh as well as the sounds represented in pinyin by the letters a, e, and i. This makes for a terribly difficult time following the stories and the names of the leaders that the book details. A section on Xi Jinping, Jiang Zemin, and Xinjiang basically sounded like “Zi Zanpang,” “Zang Ziman,” and “Zinzang.” Everything sounds like the same vague “z” sound. I have no idea why someone unskilled in Chinese would read an audiobook so full of Chinese words, places, and names. It really

Please Learn how to Pronounce Chinese

The content is great and the reading, in full-blown RP English, is fine, but couldn't they have found a voice actor who had even the slightest idea how to pronounce Chinese? I'm not asking for him to be fluent, but his guesses at Chinese names and places are not only very VERY far off the correct pronunciation, they're also inconsistent. Sometimes he calls Hu Juntao "who" and sometimes he calls him "Hugh" (the former is correct). Strangely, he pronounces the Russian names with great relish and confidence. I guess they just found the wrong person for the job.

Dated

A remarkable look inside of the Party though a bit dated. I was hoping this would be a contemporary look inside of the machine that has ruled the 2nd most powerful nation in our times. It is about 10 yrs old however and given the last 10 years and the speed in which changes have come over the global scene as a whole and China in particular it is basically out of date. Still as a starter this is an incredible book

Good intro book to the inner workings of the CCP

The first thing I must say about this book is that it is dense. I plan to listen to it again to grasp all of its info in more detail. Aside from that, the book was very thorough and enjoyable to listen to. Once I finished it, I was able to better understand how the CCP leadership makes decisions. All of the cases of corruption and nepotism help you understand that, even though they have done remarkably well for themselves, the CCP faces somewhat similar problems any ruling party would face in any country. For my perspective though, the main difference with China is that they are more unified in their purpose and goals than most developed countries. One thing you have to admire from them is that they do take long-term strategy very seriously. Also, they understand that their legitimacy to power is strongly tied to economic growth. In sum, I would definitely recommend reading or listening to this book.

Great read! illuminating!

Extremely well research and sourced! Will give you an incredible glimpse into the secretive and often baffling world of the CCP.

A mini time capsule

The audio book was superb, published in 2020 I found both educational and as well a marvelous assessment of China shortly before Xi Jinping took over as Party Secretary. It provides valuable context for understanding why has done he has done. Highly recommended, beautifully written and narrated.
Michael McDevitt

Wish I read this sooner

I recall choosing between this book and another written by David Shambaugh, China Goes Gobal, both were interesting but I prefer this one more. Perhaps that is because I find a lot of what McGregor wrote here to have born out into the present age.