Cadre Country: How China became the Chinese Communist Party

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It takes decades of patient observation, experience and study of China to produce a book like this. Cadre Country is a must read for specialists and the general public.’ – Anita Chan, Australian National University Since the founding of the Communist Party in China just over a century ago, there is much the country has achieved. But who does the heavy lifting in China? And who walks away with the spoils? Cadre Country places the spotlight on the nation’s 40 million cadres – the managers and government officials employed by the ruling Communist Party to protect its great enterprise. This group has captured the culture and wealth of China, excluding the voices of the common citizens of this powerful and diverse country. An issue with much reporting and literature on the risks of China engagement, which includes Cadre Country, is that it risks downplaying how Australia has benefitted from China engagement and people-to-people links. China remains Australia’s largest trading partner and scientific collaboration continues to produce positive benefits. While the Wuhan Laboratory remains the source of controversy, scientific cooperation has produced mutual benefits. For example, in January 2020, University of Sydney Professor Edward Holmes worked with Fudan University Professor, Zhang Yongzhen, who held the genomic information, to tweet the genome of SARS-CoV-2, which made it available to the world and allowed for the rapid development of COVID-19 testing and vaccines. The challenge for Australia is how to mitigate the risks while maintaining the benefits of open engagement.

In Fitzgerald's account, almost all of these claims are wrong. The title 'Cadre Country' one realises by the end of the book, should be taken literally. 'China' (a word only the CPC is allowed to use), is a 'defacto political nation' of around 40 million party loyalists, and ruling elite families. This 'Party-State' conquered the Chinese people in 1949 and remains, akin to a colonial regime, superimposed on top of the other nation. It rules by and for itself. It lives virtually distinct in life, from the services used and the food available to it, from the other nation. That second nation, the 'People-State' of 1.4 billion Chinese people are not simply prevent from having a say in how 'China' runs, they are not even part of the same system. Since the founding of the Communist Party in China just over a century ago, there is much the country has achieved. But who does the heavy lifting in China? And who walks away with the spoils? Cadre Country places the spotlight on the nation's 40 million cadres - the managers and government officials employed by the ruling Communist Party to protect its great enterprise. This group has captured the culture and wealth of China, excluding the voices of the common citizens of this powerful and diverse country. It takes decades of patient observation, experience and study of China to produce a book like this. Cadre Country is a must read for specialists and the general public.’ – Anita Chan, Australian National University Cadre Country is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the workings of the Chinese Communist Party and the limits of its achievements. It takes decades of patient observation, experience and study of China to produce a book like this. Cadre Country is a must read for specialists and the general public.’ – Anita Chan, Australian National UniversityDong Wang is distinguished professor of history and director of the Wellington Koo Institute for Modern China in World History at Shanghai University (since 2016), a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The Hoover Project on China’s Global Sharp Power invites you to"Cadre Country: How China became the Chinese Communist Party" on Wednesday, March 16, 2022,at 3:00 pm- 4:00 pm PT. It takes decades of patient observation, experience and study of China to produce a book like this. Cadre Country is a must read for specialists and the general public.’ – Anita Chan, Australian National University Everyone interested in China today should read this incisive analysis that explains exactly what China’s own leaders mean by describing their country as a “party-state”. Avoiding shibboleths like “totalitarian” and never assuming the inevitability of the paths China has taken in the past or will take in the future, Fitzgerald gives us a much-needed clinical description of the fundamental nature of Chinese politics.’ — Peter Zarrow, University of Connecticut

The attempt itself is not out of character for a communist partystate. Historically, on seizing power, communist parties demolish Fitzgerald primarily examines China from 2008 onwards in the post-Global Financial Crisis era, which has seen rapid economic growth in China. Fitzgerald notes that while ideology was the central guiding objective during Mao’s rule, during the Reform and Opening Up Period from the late-1970s onwards, economic modernisation preoccupied the party. In 2012, Xi came to power heralding a new era in which he has sought to re-emphasise ideology as a core guiding value for the CCP and the PRC more broadly.

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employed off-budget in shiye danwei service units, while just over onehalf occupy established positions, divided between fourteen million in difference between the English and Chinese titles of the China NonProfit Center tells us that an organisation can be Chinese in every sense of the party’s latest in-house language. This is a consistent moneyearner for cadre trainers as official party phrases are designed with

halls, including one with wall-to-wall photographic portraits of lowerlevel prefectural and provincial party cadres who, the captions informFitzgerald aims to bring an up-to-date account into the public sphere regarding the on-the-ground realities of China and the CCP’s rule, in comparison to work that often stays within insular academic and elite debates. This work forms part of Fitzgerald’s ongoing criticism of the pragmatic approach that Australian elites have taken in promoting deep engagement with China to develop economic opportunities while ignoring the more authoritarian, nationalistic, and ideological path of Xi’s China. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. John Fitzgeraldis an Emeritus Professor at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. He served for five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing (2008-2013) before heading the Asia-Pacific philanthropy studies program at Swinburne University. His books include Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia, awarded the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association, and Awakening China: Politics, Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution, awarded the Joseph Levenson Prize of the US Association for Asian Studies. Cadre Country: How China became the Chinese Communist Party is due for release in March 2022. measures the world’s largest economy. The party presides over diversified and liberalised communities and a highly marketised economy.6

Take the famous urban-influx of migrants, where farmers left their fields and moved into Chinese big cities, fueling economic growth. Fitzgerald cites studies suggesting there are at least 130 million such migrant laborers (up to 10% of the population), who while working in the cities are still legally treated as part of their former rural environments. As such, they cannot gain access to urban healthcare, education or welfare services. Absent secure housing or support, as many as 60 million children are left behind with grandparents in rural environments, or taught in near-illicit migrant schools on the outskirts of the major cities. These workers have contributed as much as 1/3rd of the total growth of China over the last few decades, yet they remain virtual foreign workers in their own country. In October 2022, at the 20 th Communist Party Congress, China’s President Xi Jinping cemented his power to win a third term of leadership and become the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. To understand the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), its political organisation, and how it has maintained its grip on power, China historian John Fitzgerald’s 2022 book Cadre Country is a great place to start. It takes decades of patient observation, experience and study of China to produce a book like this. Cadre Country is a must read for specialists and the general public.' - Anita Chan, Australian National University

Award-winning historian John Fitzgerald focuses on the stories the Communist Party tells about itself, exploring how China works as an authoritarian state, and revealing Beijing’s monumental propaganda productions as a fragile edifice built on questionable assumptions.