China Coup: The Great Leap To Freedom
ROGER GARSIDE
(UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 256 PP, £18.99)
Tablet bookshop price £17.09 • tel 020 7799 4064
In Roger Garside’s China Coup, the author develops with surprising and some would say reckless confidence the thesis that the rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and subsequently totalitarian rule itself in China, is about to collapse. The credentials of the author are burnished by a lifetime of close scrutiny of the People’s Republic, so in a field of many self-proclaimed experts, but fewer genuine authorities, Garside demands attention.
He began his China-watching through a pair of binoculars on the Hong Kong–China border in 1958. He was commanding a small detachment of Ghurka soldiers in the Sha Tau Kok observation post.
Since then, he has mixed a career serving Her Majesty in the diplomatic service with high-level appointments in international banking and academia. His life’s work has focused on the connection between the alleviation of poverty and good governance. The experience of China since the Communist takeover in 1949 has provided ample material for him to test and develop his views.
