PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Alfred L. Chan is a Professor Emeritus at Huron University College, Western University, and a Research Associate with the Asian Institute at the Munk Centre for Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. A political scientist and a China expert, he has taught at Carleton University, McGill University, and Calgary University. He has published in leading international journals on China such as The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Studies on Contemporary China, and Pacific Affairs. He is also the author of Mao's Crusade.
As a pioneering academic work on Xi Jinping's life and political career, Alfred Chan's book will be one of the definitive guides to the most important political leader in China since Mao. This well-researched book draws on rich data, wide ranging English and Chinese-language literature, and social science analysis to interpret what Xi's reign means for China's rise and its place in the world. * Lynette Ong, University of Toronto * Chan deftly traces Xi Jinping's career from earliest days to the pinnacle of power, seeing his ascension as the fruition of a deliberate grooming process by the Party. Chan argues that, although he often characterized as an absolute leader, Xi's power is in fact constrained by the need to depend on others for expertise, pushback to his ambitious reforms, and the realities of countervailing international forces. * June Dreyer, University of Miami * This book fills a crying need for a comprehensive understanding of the current Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the changing context in which he has emerged as the supreme leader in China. It is the first comprehensive study of Xi's life history, political career, and major issues in the ongoing debate in which Professor Alfred Chan offers new perspectives that challenge many of the conventional views in understanding Chinese politics. * Sujian Guo, Editor-in-Chief,, Journal of Chinese Political Science * Alfred Chan's prodigious tour de force on the career of Xi Jinping relies on extensive empirical evidence and multi-disciplinary analysis to go beyond prevailing interpretations to persuasively characterize China's current powerful leader in more complex terms. Among salient and sometimes conflicting attributes, Xi is depicted as a survivor of early adversity with an iron will to succeed; a strong and decisive leader meeting widespread demands of his time; a staunch Leninist committed to communist party rule; and an impatient change agent pushing ambitious and politically risky programs at home and abroad. Even those disagreeing with Chan's overall assessment will want to examine the evidence and reasoning in this impressive volume. * Robert Sutter, Washington University * Richly researched and actively engaged with scholarly and policy debates, Chan uses the career of Xi Jinping as a window on Chinese political history as well as a lens for understanding Chinese politics today. A valuable contribution to our collective effort to get China right. * Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia * Through prodigious research and judicious analysis, Alfred Chan has produced a biography of Xi Jinping that is almost encyclopedia-like in its comprehensiveness. Chan's book is a most important and valuable corrective to the hagiographical treatment of Xi in PRC media as well as previous biographies in English. He shows how a combination of personal attributes, the broader context of China's development since the 1980s, and a confluence of contingencies brought Xi Jinping to his current position as arguably the single most powerful and historically significant person of the early twenty-first century. * Michael Szonyi, Harvard University *
