From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party

by Tony Saich

Overview

“The definitive, candid, and absorbing history of a political organization…A vital account, based on magnificent research, that shows the party as a colossal, relentless, and enduring machine.”—Jane Perlez, former Beijing Bureau Chief, New York Times

“If you were to travel back in time to 1921 and predict that the Communist Party of China would rule over the world’s second-largest economy 100 years later, no one would believe you. In this definitive primer, Tony Saich explains how the impossible came true.”—Yuen Yuen Ang, Project Syndicate

“An extremely lucid, insightful history of the Chinese Communist Party. Saich’s readable narrative takes the CCP from its origins as a tiny group of revolutionaries…to the powerful, repressive rulers of a world power today.”—James Mann, author of The China Fantasy

Mao Zedong and the twelve young men who founded the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 could hardly have imagined that less than thirty years later, they would rule China. Over a century later the party remains in command, leading a nation primed for global dominance.

From Rebel to Ruler is a landmark history of the Chinese Communist Party—its rise against incredible odds, its struggle to consolidate power and overcome self-inflicted disasters, and its ability to thrive long after the collapse of the Soviet Union and dissolution of other communist parties. Leninist systems are thought to be rigid, yet the Chinese Communist Party has proved adaptable. Tony Saich shows that the party owes its endurance to its flexibility. But is it nimble enough to realize Xi Jinping’s “China Dream”? Challenges are multiplying, as a restless middle class makes new demands and the party strays ever further from its revolutionary roots.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674293915
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/24/2023
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	606,699
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Tony Saich is Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and Director the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia at Harvard Kennedy School. His books include Finding Allies and Making Revolution: The Early Years of the Chinese Communist Party and Governance and Politics of China.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations ix

Introduction: Welcome to the Party 1

Part 1 How the East was Won

1 The End of the Empire 21

2 Origins, Alliance, and Failure, 1920-1930 38

3 Wanderings in the Wilderness, 1930-1940 77

4 Victories at Last, 1940-1948 115

5 The Chinese Communist Revolution 152

Part 2 How the East is Ruled

6 Consolidating the Revolution, 1948-1956 177

7 Radicalizing the Revolution, 1956-1969 207

8 Charting a Way Forward, 1969-1981 245

9 Reform, Rebellion, and Restoration, 1982-1993 289

10 Renewed Reform and the Roots of Wealth, 1993-2002 325

11 The WTO World and China's Rise, 2002-2012 357

12 Creating the China Dream, 2012-2021 390

Conclusion: Legacies from the Past, Challenges for the Future 435

Notes 469

Acknowledgments 529

Illustration Credits 531

Index 533

Editorial Reviews

There is arguably no organization in the world today that is more important to understand than the CCP…Saich’s [book] provides a comprehensive narrative of the CCP from its inception to this day…He is meticulous in his research and descriptions.

Los Angeles Review of Books - Martin Laflamme

The definitive, candid, and absorbing history of a political organization that counts 90 million members and indisputably rules as America’s most powerful rival. Drawing on priceless contacts made in China over decades, Saich describes how ideological underpinnings, ruthless campaigns, and the ‘coercing of conformity’ pushed the CCP through revolutionary zeal to its current all-powerful position. A vital account, based on magnificent research, that shows the party as a colossal, relentless, and enduring machine.

Jane Perlez

An unpretentious, humane, and deeply informed history of the Chinese Communist Party. Saich, whose considerable time in China adds depth and understanding to this excellent book, offers a clear narrative that does justice to the earlier history as well as present concerns. This will be our most reliable account of the history of the CCP for a generation.

Timothy Cheek

An extremely lucid, insightful history of the Chinese Communist Party. Saich’s readable narrative takes the CCP from its origins as a tiny group of revolutionaries in Shanghai a century ago to the powerful, repressive rulers of a world power today. From Rebel to Ruler should stand as an authoritative account of the party’s development.

James Mann

If you were to travel back in time to 1921 and predict that the Communist Party of China would rule over the world’s second-largest economy 100 years later, no one would believe you. In this definitive primer, Tony Saich explains how the impossible came true.

Project Syndicate - Yuen Yuen Ang

One of the best and clearest treatments of the subject to date…Tony Saich walks us through the myriad transformations the Party and its members have been through: from rebels to survivalists, revolutionaries to crushers of rebellion, and finally to socialist capitalists. With clarity and attention to detail…this is a truly authoritative text on one of the most successful political parties in history.

The Wire China - Alec Ash

Gives a broad overview of the main characters, movements, and ideologies that have shaped the CCP… Saich provides a different angle by focusing on the inner workings, strategy, and personalities of the Chinese Communist Party…Presents the Party, in all its complexity, on its own terms. Saich is not simply offering commentary from an outside point of view, he is attempting to give readers the tools to access the CCP as they see themselves.

ChinaSource

Saich is a surehanded and deeply knowledgeable guide in this highly accessible tour of the entire sweep of the Chinese Communist Party’s century-long history. While the party now projects a self-image of unity, competence, and strength, Saich recounts a narrative replete with internal strife, uncertainty, and deep-seated insecurity. His reflections on the future of the party, and China, are sobering.

Andrew G. Walder

The Chinese Communist Party is one of the most important, yet least understood, political organizations in the world today. Saich has produced a superb interpretation of the party for its hundredth anniversary. From Rebel to Ruler is both deep and nuanced in the account of its history, and incisive on the unique combination in the party under Xi Jinping of ideology, pragmatism, and sheer brute force.

Rana Mitter

04/05/2021

Saich (Finding Allies and Making Revolution), a professor of international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, delivers a sweeping history of the Chinese Communist Party, from its fledgling urban beginnings in 1921 Shanghai to today. In encyclopedic detail, Saich covers Mao Zedong’s early “experiment with combining the revolutionary potential of the peasantry with military strength”; the 1949 creation of the People’s Republic of China; the disastrous, famine-inducing policies of the Great Leap Forward; and the personality cult behind Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which nearly derailed the nation in the 1960s. While the decades from Mao’s death and the implementation of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform policies in the late ’70s to the present-day are less gripping, Saich lucidly details how the party has evolved into a market-oriented yet “essentially Leninist” political behemoth that “fluctuat between soft and hard authoritarianism.” Though Saich’s focus on high-level political gamesmanship somewhat obscures the deadly consequences of crackdowns on student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and Uighurs in Xinjiang province today, he offers key insights into how the party survived the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe and the steep challenges facing current leader Xi Jinping. This exhaustive, well-informed chronicle sheds light on one of the world’s most consequential political institutions. (July)

Publishers Weekly