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Red Roulette
''Red Roulette: An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today’s China'' is a 2021 memoir by Desmond Shum ( ghost-written by John Pomfret). James Palmer of ''Foreign Policy'' wrote that the work serves as "one of the very few insider accounts we have of how things get done at the top in China". Background Shum's former wife Whitney Duan Weihong, under arrest and incommunicado since 2017, placed a telephone call to Shum telling him to cancel the publication. Jude Blanchette of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) wrote in ''The Washington Post'' that the party attempted to use Duan and Shum's family as hostages to convince him to not go forward with publishing. Palmer explained that Shum, by writing the book and publishing it, went against the "omertà" of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Contents The work discusses how doing favors for other people becomes the backbone of guanxi personal relationships in China, and Palmer s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desmond Shum
Desmond Shum (）is the author of ''Red Roulette: An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption and Vengeance in Today’s China'' and is the former husband of arrested Chinese billionaire Duan Weihong. Shum was born in Shanghai, spent his boyhood in Hong Kong and studied at a college in the United States. Work In ''Red Roulette'' Shum describes his personal experience working in senior roles in Chinese companies and the Guanxi with people in the Chinese government and the ruling Communist Party that was required to ensure business dealings were successful. He describes the widespread and systemic corruption that permeates the Chinese Communist Party’s relationship with private business and the resulting high level of influence the party and the government exercise on private business. In the book Shum considers Guo Wengui a dissident; admits having been member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for a decade; and confesses to marching against Hong Ko ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Writer
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, memoirs, magazine articles, or other written material. Memoir ghostwriters often pride themselves in "disappearing" when impersonating others since such disappearance signals the quality of their craftsmanship. In music, ghostwriters are often used to write songs, lyrics, and instrumental pieces. Screenplay authors can also use ghostwriters to either edit or rewrite their scripts to improve them. Usually, there is a confidentiality clause in the contract between the ghostwriter and the credited author that obligates the former to remain anonymous. Sometimes the ghostwriter is acknowledged by the author or publisher for their writing services, euphemistically called a "researcher" or "res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Pomfret (journalist)
John Pomfret (born 1959) is an American journalist and writer. Biography Pomfret was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1959, and raised in New York City. He attended Stanford University, receiving his B.A. and M.A. in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University. Between 1983 and 1984 he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict. He started his journalistic career at the '' Stanford Daily'' as a photographer. After that he worked at a newspaper in Riverside County, California, and after a year was hired by the Associated Press to work in New York City, covering the graveyard shift. After two years with the AP in New York, in 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent, thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin and his Asian studies background. There he covered the 1989 student protests in Beijing, after which he was expelled f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Policy (magazine)
''Foreign Policy'' is an American news publication, founded in 1970 and focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy. It produces content daily on its website and app, and in four print issues annually. ''Foreign Policy'' magazine and ForeignPolicy.com are published by The FP Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company). The FP Group also produces FP Events, ''Foreign Policy''s events division, launched in 2012. History ''Foreign Policy'' was founded in late 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington, professor of Harvard University, and his friend Warren Demian Manshel to give a voice to alternative views about American foreign policy at the time of the Vietnam War. Huntington hoped it would be "serious but not scholarly, lively but not glib". In early 1978, after six years of close partnership, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace acquired full ownership of ''Foreign Policy''. In 2000, a format change ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duan Weihong
Duan Weihong (; pinyin: Duàn Wěihóng; b. December 29, 1966), also known as Whitney Duan, is a Chinese billionaire who is currently missing and believed to be held captive by Chinese government investigators on corruption charges. Prior to her arrest at Beijing’s Bulgari Hotel she owned, she was subject to a travel ban by the Chinese government. According to a 2018 report from ''The New York Times'', Duan was detained in 2017, possibly in relation to an anti-corruption investigation into Sun Zhengcai, but there has been no official acknowledgement from the Chinese government. Duan, who was reported to be one of China’s wealthiest women, was known for her business dealings with former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and particularly his wife, Zhang Peili. In a memoir written by her ex-husband Desmond Shum titled ''Red Roulette'', Duan is said to have fallen victim to the party’s use of "extralegal kidnappings" to facilitate opaque investigations. However in the book Shum states th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Center For Strategic And International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the world, with a specific focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, technology, finance, energy and geostrategy. In the University of Pennsylvania's 2019 ''Global Go To Think Tanks Report'', CSIS is ranked the number one think tank in the United States across all fields, the "Top Defense and National Security Think Tank" in the world, and the 4th best think tank in the world overall. It was named as a "Defense and National Security Center of Excellence for 2016-2018". Since its founding, CSIS "has been dedicated to finding ways to sustain American prominence and prosperity as a force for good in the world", according to its website ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Waterga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omertà
Omertà (, ) is a Southern Italian code of silence and code of honor and conduct that places importance on silence in the face of questioning by authorities or outsiders; non-cooperation with authorities, the government, or outsiders, especially during criminal investigations; and willfully ignoring and generally avoiding interference with the illegal activities of others (i.e., not contacting law enforcement or the authorities when one is aware of, witness to, or even the victim of certain crimes). It originated and remains common in Southern Italy, where banditry or brigandage and Mafia-type criminal organizations (like the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana) have long been strong. Similar codes are also deeply rooted in other areas of the Mediterranean, including Malta, Crete in Greece, and Corsica, all of which share a common or similar historic culture with Southern Italy. Retaliation against informers is common in criminal c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang, and, in 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Since then, the CCP has governed China with eight smaller parties within its United Front and has sole control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Each successive leader of the CCP has added their own theories to the party's constitution, which outlines the ideological beliefs of the party, collectively referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics. As of 2022, the CCP has more than 96 million members, making it the second largest political party by party membership in the world after India's Bharatiya Janata Party. The Chinese public generally refers to the CCP as simply "the Party". In 1921, Chen Duxiu and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guanxi
''Guanxi'' () is a term used in Chinese culture to describe an individual's social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. The character ''guan'', 关, means “closed” while the character ''xi'' 系 means “system” and together the term refers to a closed system of relationships that is somewhat analogous to the term old boy's network in the West. In Western media, the pinyin romanization ''guanxi'' is more widely used than common translations such as "connections" or "relationships" because those terms don't capture the significance of a person's ''guanxi'' to most personal and business dealings in China. Unlike in the West, ''guanxi'' relationships are almost never established purely through formal meetings but must also include spending time to get to know each other during tea sessions, dinner banquets, or other personal meetings. Essentially, ''guanxi'' requires a personal bond before any business relationship can develop. As a result, ''gua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhang Peili
Zhang Peili (; born 1941) is a Chinese geologist and the wife of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Biography Zhang was formerly the vice-president of the Chinese Jewelry Association, and president and CEO of Beijing Diamond Jewelries Co., a company which has operations in both the mainland and Hong Kong. Zhang met Wen when he was working in Jiuquan as part of Gansu's Bureau of Geology. Being described as a strong-willed woman, her personality is in strict contrast to that of her husband, who is fairly introverted and modest. Zhang is never seen on any official occasions with the Premier. In 2007 Taiwan's TVBS found Zhang to be wearing a bracelet worth over 2 million RMB (approximately US$300,000) at a jewelry convention, and she was in Taiwan to buy a necklace valued 14 million RMB (approximately US$2,240,000) According to a U.S. diplomatic cable posted by WikiLeaks, Wen has sought to divorce Zhang and is "disgusted" by how she has used his name to extract huge commissions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
