{"id":5883,"date":"2022-03-31T15:07:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/?p=5883"},"modified":"2023-04-07T09:15:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:15:42","slug":"book-review-red-roulette-by-desmond-shum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinacenter.net\/2022\/china-currents\/21-1\/book-review-red-roulette-by-desmond-shum\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Red Roulette by Desmond Shum"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is an edited version of the original book review published in the U.S. China Perception Monitor<\/i>, November 15, 2021. https:\/\/uscnpm.org\/2021\/11\/15\/review-desmond-shums-red-roulette\/<\/a><\/p>\n Billed as a \u201c<\/span>tell-all\u201d <\/span>about the scandals of the Chinese Communist Party as it led\u00a0China<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s re-entry into the global system, this tale is a page-turner of policy shifts and intrigue, including the mysterious disappearance of the author\u2019s wife. \u00a0Shum<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s main takeaway is that the CCP only cares about its power and protecting the top cadres\u2019 children, who will carry on and protect the current leaders in their retirement.\u00a0 At the core of what Shum calls the \u201cred aristocracy\u201d are the original cadres who fought along with Mao Zedong, and the \u201cprincelings,\u201d their offspring. China<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s economic success, Shum argues, was achieved by connecting entrepreneurs to these political elites, <\/span>an arrangement that served the interests of both.\u00a0 In Shum\u2019s view, that arrangement has run its course, as President Xi, one of the princelings, pushes Chinese socialist values while condemning western ones.<\/p>\n Shum was born in Shanghai in 1968 but moved with his family to Hong Kong, which was not easy to arrange, especially because Shum\u2019<\/span>s father did not come from a \u201c<\/span>good\u201d <\/span>background \u2014 people who supported the CCP once they won the civil war in 1949.\u00a0 Shum<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s grandfather had been a lawyer in Shanghai, which made him a capitalist and therefore a bad element.\u00a0 His father ended up in a low position teaching Chinese at a Shanghai teachers\u2019 training school and met his mother there.\u00a0 But his mother had relatives in Hong Kong who helped her get to the British colony. But it took years of cajoling authorities to let his father join her in Hong Kong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ironically, once China began to reform, Shum\u2019<\/span>s mother and father willingly moved back to Shanghai to make fortunes.\u00a0 Shum\u2019<\/span>s father had a successful stint with Tyson<\/span>Foods in Hong Kong, and the company sent him to Shanghai to build its China market. Shum moved back to China as his company\u2019<\/span>s representative in Beijing in 1997.\u00a0 He lived as an expat gaining business experience but without much success.<\/p>\n Shum\u2019 business career took off when he met Whitney Duan (Duan Zong) in 2001<\/span>. They became business partners, eventually married and later had a son.\u00a0 The book opens with the fact that Whitney disappeared in 2017, and that Shum had not heard from her or received any news about her since.<\/p>\n Whitney, who was born in Shandong Province in 1966, started a company called Great Ocean.\u00a0 As a Christian, she vowed never to get ahead by being corrupt.\u00a0 However, she was adept at cultivating relationships with people at the highest levels of the Chinese leadership.\u00a0 She became especially close to Auntie Zhang (Zhang Beili), who was the wife of Wen Jiabao.\u00a0 Wen rose in the political ranks to become Premier from 2003 to 2012.<\/p>\n Through their tirelessly cultivated connections, Shum and Whitney were able to obtain valuable pieces of land and permission to build major projects, including the cargo area of the Beijing Airport and a large office-condo complex nearby.\u00a0 Through their development company and access to other sure-bet investments, they were able to make hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.<\/p>\n Three aspects of Shum\u2019<\/span>s story are especially intriguing.<\/p>\n First, he provides a clear description of how connections, guanxi<\/span><\/i>, work and offer rewards in China. <\/span>In the Chinese context, guanxi \u2014 <\/i>like networking in the West \u2014 does not mean corruption, but Shum argues that to do any business in China one must curry favor with the Communist Party.<\/p>\n Second, one can see how business changed as reforms advanced and the business environment evolved due to new regulations, infrastructure buildout, rising incomes, and interaction with global markets.<\/p>\n
\nBook Review: Desmond Shum, Red Roulette (Scribner, 2021); 310 pp. hardback<\/h3>\n