The tale of modern China through the story of its mastermind

“Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China” by Ezra F. Vogel

This is a very ambitious book, written by an author who knows China and its elites very well from his time as an intelligence officer in East Asia for the Clinton administration. The book tells the complete story of China’s incredible transformation in the late 20th century, from poverty and famine to the economic superpower they are today. It is a tale told from the vantage point of the transformation’s chief architect, the pragmatic and disciplined Deng Xiaoping.

Through a painstakingly diligent research, that includes interviews with Deng’s interpreters, the book traces Deng’s story from his time in Paris as a student in the early 1920s, his move in joining the Chinese Revolution from the ground up after coming home in 1927, to facing Mao’s cult of personality, political exile, and a turbulent return and rise to power in 50 years that include several heartbreaks, betrayals, even death.

It then focused on the main era that defines both Deng and China, the period of time when he eventually became China’s leader from 1878 to 1989 and then in 1992. During this time he managed to loosen the economic and social policies that had stunted China’s growth, modernized the country with technology and science, as well as opening the trade relationship with the West. All of which lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty.

But these things are never easy, are they? This is where the book excels, it show’s Deng’s expert maneuvers within the politics of the country as well as his diplomatic prowess at the international stage, with the details of the conversations and conflicts behind the scene are all laid out in the pages. It is quite a story, worthy of all the 745 pages of the book.

No wonder that it has won multiple awards, including: Economist Best Book of the Year, Financial Times Book of the year, Bloomberg News Book of the Year, Wall Street Journal Book of the year, Washington Post Book of the Year, Esquire China Book of the year, Gates Notes Top Read of the Year, Finalist for National Book Critics Circle Awards, and Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize.