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The Conscience of the Party
Hu Yaobang, China’s Communist Reformer
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Robert L. Suettinger
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
The definitive biography of Hu Yaobang, who, as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1980s, promoted popular reforms and took aim at Mao’s personality cult. When Hu’s popularity and politics grew too dangerous for the party, he was purged and suppressed in memory—but not before his death inspired the Tiananmen demonstrations.
Reviews
A beautifully balanced, poignant, deeply documented, scrupulously pondered biography…[no other major biography of China’s modern leaders] is so probing or so emancipating of the mind of the reader…this book must be read.
-- Paul Monk The Australian
-- Paul Monk The Australian
Insightful…as much a biography of the party as it is of the man.
-- Matthew Pottinger Wall Street Journal
-- Matthew Pottinger Wall Street Journal
Suettinger’s biography is a pathbreaking account of Hu, prodigiously and thoughtfully exploring what kind of person he was and how he emerged as a leader with reformist aspirations in a world of apparatchiks…The result is a remarkably nuanced work that not only depicts Hu as a courageous and thoughtful reformist leader but also illuminates an important turning point in China’s recent history.
-- Chen Jian Foreign Affairs
-- Chen Jian Foreign Affairs
A comprehensive study that sets a new standard for historiography on the CCP. Drawing on an impressive range of Chinese-language primary source materials, the nearly 500-page magnum opus is the result of a decade’s research and writing…Suettinger has written the definitive study of Hu Yaobang’s life and times, and it is a major contribution to our understanding of Chinese communism.
-- David Shambaugh China Books Review
-- David Shambaugh China Books Review
An extremely detailed and fascinating life story that is sure to appeal to all students of modern Chinese history, as well as anyone interested in politics and global issues…a valuable source of information about a romantic revolutionary who was desperately trying to combine socialism and liberalism in a country that was not ready to accept this centaur-type creature.
-- Alexander V. Pantsov China Quarterly
-- Alexander V. Pantsov China Quarterly
A definitive biography of one of China’s important reformist leaders, Hu Yaobang…Suettinger had studied China as a CIA analyst for several years and brings a rigorous analytical approach to this very detailed biography. He has drawn from a vast array of original Chinese language sources and covered Hu’s life and legacy in considerable detail…a timely corrective to the inordinate and often adulatory depiction of Deng Xiaoping’s role as the wise, pragmatic and decisive reformist leader to the exclusion of the important role played by others.
-- Shyam Saran Business Standard
-- Shyam Saran Business Standard
[This] book’s ability to transcend the particularities of Hu’s career and illuminate the universal dilemmas of reform in constrained systems solidifies its position as an essential resource for scholars of Chinese politics and comparative governance alike. By capturing the intricate dynamics of reform and resistance, The Conscience of the Party stands as a profound contribution to the broader discourse on political transformation in authoritarian contexts.
-- Stefan Messingschlager Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies
-- Stefan Messingschlager Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies
An insightful and balanced biography of Hu Yaobang, one of the most remarkable Chinese leaders of the post-Mao era. Suettinger offers convincing evidence crediting Hu with key breakthroughs in China’s reform and opening.
-- Minxin Pei, author of The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China
-- Minxin Pei, author of The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China
A must-read for anyone who wants to understand China. Suettinger painstakingly reconstructs the life of Hu against the backdrop of seventy years of turmoil: wars, class struggles, purges, starvation, and fanatic mob violence. In doing so, he treats his subject not as a glorified hero but as a person with feelings—a romantic, humanistic figure, who nonetheless remained loyal to a party known for its ruthlessness. This a much-needed and welcome contribution.
-- Shaomin Li, author of The Rise of China, Inc.: How the Chinese Communist Party Transformed China into a Giant Corporation
-- Shaomin Li, author of The Rise of China, Inc.: How the Chinese Communist Party Transformed China into a Giant Corporation
A committed revolutionary, Hu Yaobang joined the Red Army at age fifteen, spent decades following Mao Zedong, and in 1980 was named general secretary of the CCP. In this thoroughly researched and illuminating book, Suettinger shows how Hu nevertheless became the ‘conscience of the party,’ overseeing the rehabilitation of thousands of cadres. This was a story that did not have to culminate in tragedy.
-- Joseph Fewsmith, author of Forging Leninism in China: Mao and the Remaking of the Chinese Communist Party, 1927–1934
-- Joseph Fewsmith, author of Forging Leninism in China: Mao and the Remaking of the Chinese Communist Party, 1927–1934
With all the suspense of a great detective novel, Suettinger brings to life the personal qualities, brutal backroom politics, and seminal events that shaped former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang’s more than half-century journey from Mao acolyte to lead architect of China’s dramatic 1980s reforms. It is a masterful accounting of party history through Hu’s rise and ultimate demise and a potent reminder to today’s China watchers of the importance of individual leaders in shaping the country’s future.
-- Elizabeth C. Economy, author of The World According to China
-- Elizabeth C. Economy, author of The World According to China
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 15, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9780674298309
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
480
eBook ISBN:
9780674298309
Keywords for this book
june 4th incident; youth league; cult personality; long march; yanan; kuomintang; battle Taiyuan; Zhangjiakou; Zhu De; Peng Dehuai; Liu Shaoqi; Ye Jianying; Luo Ruiqing; Chen Yun; Bo Yibo; Peng Zhen; Yang Shangkun; Kang Sheng; Jiang Qing; xi jinping
