Gate to China A New History of the People’s Republic & Hong Kong
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Michael Sheridan read history at Jesus College, Cambridge, and became a foreign correspondent in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He first reported from Hong Kong and China in June 1989 and later served as Far East correspondent for The Sunday Times (London) for twenty years, covering the rise of China, the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and the city’s struggle for democracy.
Earlier he worked for Reuters, ITN and The Independent, reporting on war in the Middle East, global diplomacy and European politics, with postings in Rome, Beirut and Jerusalem.
His work has also appeared in the Spectator, Tablet, Vanity Fair and the Hong Kong Economic Journal.
He is author of a 1994 book Romans: Their Lives and Times.
<p>‘You can understand a lot about China’s relations with the rest of the world … by looking at how the leadership in Beijing has dealt with Hong Kong …<em>The Gate to China</em> meticulously details why this is so … in this very readable book Sheridan<br />takes the reader through the tortuous Sino-British negotiations that led to the handover … impressive … fascinating’<br /><strong>Sunday Times</strong></p>
<p>‘Highly readable … Sheridan covers the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong’s future in engaging detail…he adds colour to existing accounts … provides a welcome contrast to many of the existing histories of the period’<br /><strong>Literary Review</strong></p>
<p>‘An authoritative history of Hong Kong and its relations with the UK and China … even-handed … Analyses with a wealth of documentary evidence the motivations of Chinese leaders in seeking to reverse historical humiliation’<br /><strong>Financial Times</strong></p>
<p>‘Sheridan’s gripping and richly researched history sheds a highly critical light on those British officials of the Thatcher era who seemed to favour Beijing’s autocracy over the promotion of liberal values and movingly recounts the brief hopes of Hong Kong’s reformers whose democratic enlightenment has turned to darkness’<br /><strong>Rana Mitter, BBC History Magazine</strong></p>
<p>‘Authoritative … Hong Kong’s story is full of drama, politics and personalities and Sheridan tells it well, drawing from a wide variety of Chinese and British sources’<br /><strong>Observer</strong></p>
<p>‘Sheridan’s account testifies to the Western dreams about China and to the ways they are shattered … <em>The Gate to China</em> details the regime’s use of its cyber-capabilities to monitor dissent, block communications and even interfere with efforts to measure public sentiment in Hong Kong’<br /><strong>Washington Post </strong></p>
<p>‘A delightful piece of writing and research’<br /><strong>Jasper Becker</strong></p>
<p>‘Deeply researched and beautifully written … Essential reading for anyone interested in the saga of a city whose fate has dominated the headlines’<br /><strong>Mike Chinoy</strong></p>
‘Impressive … Fascinating’ Sunday Times
‘An authoritative history’ Financial Times
‘Gripping and richly researched’ Rana Mitter
A superb new history of the rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule.
The rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule are told with unique insight in this new history by Michael Sheridan, drawing on eyewitness reporting over three decades, interviews with key figures and documents from archives in China and the West.
The story sweeps the reader from the earliest days of trade through the Opium Wars of the 19th century to the age of globalisation and the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. It ends with the battle for democracy on the city’s streets and the ultimate victory of the Chinese Communist Party.
How did it come to this? We learn from private papers that Margaret Thatcher anguished over the fate of Hong Kong, sought secret American briefings on how to handle China and put her trust in an adviser who was torn between duty and pride. The deal they made with Beijing did not last.
The Chinese side of this history, so often unheard, emerges from memoirs and documents, many new to the foreign reader, revealing how the party’s iron will and negotiating tactics crushed its opponents. Yet the voices of Hong Kong people – eloquent, smart and bold – speak out here for ideals that refuse to die.
Sheridan’s book tells how Hong Kong opened the way for the People’s Republic as it reformed its economy and changed the world, emerging to challenge the West with a new order that raises fundamental questions about progress, identity and freedom. It is critical reading for all who study, trade or deal with China.
• FOR READERS OF FRANK DIKOTTER’S PEOPLES TRILOGY, ANNE APPLEBAUM’S TWILIGHT OF DEMOCRACY, TOM BURGIS’S KLEPTOPIA AND CATHERINE BELTON’S PUTIN’S PEOPLE.
• DEEPLY RESEARCHED. The book is based on Chinese documentary sources and memoirs, archives in Hong Kong, the UK and the USA; extensive interviews with the men and women at the centre of the drama, plus pen portraits – with material never published in the West – of the secretive Communist cadres who shaped Hong Kong’s history.
• URGENT SUBJECT MAKING HEADLINES TODAY AND TOMORROW. Sheridan reveals the back story of how Hong Kong’s 7 million people lost their freedom, making sense of China’s moves and explaining how the West is in a contest that will make news for years to come.
• SIGNIFICANT REVELATIONS. Huge potential for a high-profile serial in national newspaper to launch publication
• UNCOVERS centuries of misunderstanding and bungled diplomacy between China and the West and the results for free trade, global security and human rights in the 21st century.
• DRAMATIC account of the latest events in Hong Kong as peaceful protest gave way to violence and crackdown, including testimony from democracy leaders now facing jail.
Competition: The Story of China;Kings of Shanghai;city on fire;the cultural revolution;when china rules the world;destined for war. Michael Wood;Jonathan Kaufman;Antony Dapiran;Jonathan Kaufman;Jonathan Fenby;frank dikotter;John Keay;Martin Jacques;Graham Allison;Anne Applebaum;Orlando Figes
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Michael Sheridan read history at Jesus College, Cambridge, and became a foreign correspondent in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He first reported from Hong Kong and China in June 1989 and later served as Far East correspondent for The Sunday Times (London) for twenty years, covering the rise of China, the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and the city’s struggle for democracy.
Earlier he worked for Reuters, ITN and The Independent, reporting on war in the Middle East, global diplomacy and European politics, with postings in Rome, Beirut and Jerusalem.
His work has also appeared in the Spectator, Tablet, Vanity Fair and the Hong Kong Economic Journal.
He is author of a 1994 book Romans: Their Lives and Times.