''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
A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...
'' 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
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 poli ...
(CSIS) wrote in ''
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 n ...
'' 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
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, especia ...
" of the
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 Ci ...
(CCP).
[
]
Contents
The work discusses how doing favors for other people becomes the backbone of 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 ...
personal relationships in China, and Palmer stated the "tragedy of those ties" becomes an important thematic element.[ The book states how Shum and Duan formed a corrupt relationship with Zhang Peili and became wealthy as a result. Blanchette stated that the Zhang Peili connection is in the "heart" of the work.][
Blanchette wrote that the CCP is depicted in the work as being "the epitome of capitalist excess".][ Blanchette added that the work shows that actual decisions go through "informal interactions" between key power brokers, with official meetings being for show; he stated that this "highlight the limitations of more formalistic analysis of China’s political system."][
]
Reception
Palmer wrote in terms of the author's assessment of himself within the work, as Shum was someone previously pro-CCP who later turned against the party, "unusually honest—though not completely frank".[
Blanchette called the work "a remarkable indictment of the Chinese Communist Party" and "a rare bona fide insider account".][
'']Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' gave the book a starred review and stated that the book has an "enthralling" critique of the CCP and "is imbued with an aura of inevitable tragedy".
Kirkus Reviews described the book as "riveting".
References
{{reflist
2021 non-fiction books
Books about China
Chinese memoirs