An exceptional personal look at the borders and peoples of China - Francis Fukuyama

Edward Wong is the most knowledgeable guide to China that one could find - Barbara Demick

Meticulously detailed ... reveals the complexities of Chinese politics and life in a way that general readers will find fascinating - Guardian

The son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, Edward Wong grew up amidst family secrets. His father worked in restaurants and rarely spoke about his childhood during the Japanese occupation of China and his years in the People's Army under Mao. His journey as a soldier took him from Manchuria during the Korean War to Xinjiang on the Central Asian borders. In 1962, disillusioned with the Communist Party, he planned a desperate escape to Hong Kong.

When Edward Wong became the Beijing bureau chief of The New York Times, he explored his father's past while assessing the dream of a reborn China. He met the citizens who are driving the country's astonishing economic boom and global expansion - and struggling with the fervor of the nationalist regime under Xi Jinping. He witnessed protests and battles for political rights in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and had an inside look at how the world's two superpowers meet at a critical crossroads.

In this essential work of understanding China today, Wong narrates a poignant chronicle of a family and a nation spanning nearly a century of significant changes.