Chinesisches Roulette

The book that the Chinese government does not want us to read: Money, Power, and Arbitrary Rule in China. "About the greed for money, sex, and power, and an empire that strikes back." Süddeutsche Zeitung. When is one truly powerful? When there is a billion in the bank? When the wife is making big deals while shopping with the wife of the Premier? Desmond Shum grows up in Shanghai and Hong Kong. After studying in the USA, he plunges into Beijing's business life with the perspective of an outsider and the right connections. He makes money through real estate transactions. His wife Whitney maintains relationships with the wives of important political figures. Yet Desmond Shum finds himself powerless when Whitney, a billionaire like him, disappears without a trace. Who could Whitney Duan have posed a danger to? What did she know about President Xi Jinping—or what else, apart from trouble with the government, could be behind her sudden disappearance? "In China, politics is the key to wealth." Desmond Shum. A provocative eyewitness account from the newly wealthy business elite of China: The background of the "explosion" of Chinese capitalism in the 2000s, told by someone who was entangled and profited from it. Rarely has anyone dared to write so openly about what power means in China. An eye-opening look at the Chinese elite, excessive enrichment, and the conflict between capitalism and the Communist Party. "Shum exposes the machinations of the Communist Party of China and those of the billionaires it has produced." Barbara Demick.