Prisoner of the State

I picked this book up at Hong Kong airport - I wasn't expecting to see it there - prior to boarding a 14-hour daytime flight to London. Of course, I didn't manage to read it all on the plane. Cathay Pacific's amazing in-flght entertainment system made sure of that. But it was an interesting window onto the Chinese mentality that I had heard about but never needed to understand.

The book is the secret memoir of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was removed from power for trying to negotiate an end to the student uprising in 1989, rather than taking part in the military crackdown imposed by the hard-liners.

The book shows the cloak and dagger world of politics, influence and personal interests that lies behind any political system, though always covered up in China where, under the one-party system, such posturing and conflict could not be admitted.

Unfortunately, and this is part of that same system and philosophy, the book rambles on about many, many different issues, then revisits some of them in a economic rather than a political context, making the book very hard going.

It is clear that Zhao Ziyang was wronged and improperly treated and that China's economic development suffered in organsational terms as a result, but so many years later, that is water under the bridge.

Overall, a book for academics and enthusiasts. Don't risk picking it up as a curiosity.