JIANG ZEMIN's life and leadership sweep through almost eighty tumultuous years of Chinese history: Japanese occupation, Civil War, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square, and, more recently, dramatic economic growth, tensions with Taiwan, and opportunities and confrontations with America.Jiang's story is an epic of war, deprivation, revolution, political turmoil, social convulsion, economic reform, national transformation, and international resurgence. To Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a longtime China observer, understanding the legacy ofJiang Zemin is essential for understanding the challenges of contemporary China. By examining Jiang's life, we observe the clash between China's traditional culture and chaotic history, and we appreciate how its changes impact the entire world.

JIANG ZEMIN’s life and leadership sweep through almost eighty tumultuous years of Chinese history: Japanese occupation, Civil War, Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square, and, more recently, dramatic economic growth, tensions with Taiwan, and opportunities and confrontations with America.Jiang’s story is an epic of war, deprivation, revolution, political turmoil, social convulsion, economic reform, national transformation, and international resurgence. To Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a longtime China observer, understanding the legacy ofJiang Zemin is essential for understanding the challenges of contemporary China. By examining Jiang’s life, we observe the clash between China’s traditional culture and chaotic history, and we appreciate how its changes impact the entire world.

In The Man Who Changed China, Kuhn, who was cited by the Asian Wall Street Journal for the "unprecedented access" he was given in the course of writing this book, has produced what the Tournal called "probably the closest thing to an authorized biography that’s possible in Communist China." Here a reader will find a complex and nuanced portrait of China’s senior leader, whose policies continue to exert great influence over the course of his country. Kuhn offers insight into how the Japanese occupation duringJiang’s teenage years imprinted his psyche for life, how he became a Communist, and how, decades later, he struggled to transform the Party in the face of withering criticism.

In a sense, Kuhn argues, Jiang’s early skeptics got it right: He was a transitional figure--but not in the way they had meant. With unshakable if paternalistic vision, a lifelong love of Chinese civilization, and backroom political skills that no one had anticipated, Jiang Zemin became an unex pected agent of change, effecting the transition from a traumatized society to a confident, prosperous country rapidly ascending in the new world order. Kuhn shows howJiang led China through an amazing metamorphosis--from a fretful country destabilized by the turmoil and crackdown in Tiananmen Square into a vibrant nation that became a primary engine of global economic growth. Above allJiang is a Chinese patriot-and it is important to appreciate what that really means. In offering this unusually intimate and comprehensive personal and political biography, Kuhn demonstrates thatJiang Zemin’s life  personifies the history of contemporary China, giving invaluable insight into what China is today and will become in the future.

INTRODUCTION: THE LIFE OF JIANG ZEMIN

         Part One · Grounding

          I926-I989 

       Cbapter I · 1926-1943

 "My Background Is My Family"

       Chapter2 1943-1947

      "I Am a Patriot" 

     Cbapter 3 · I947-1955

     "I Am an Engineer" 

     Chapter 4 · 1955-1962

      "I Love Talent" 

     Chapter 5 · 1962-1976

"A Period of Unprecedented Destruction"

     Chapter 6 ·1976-1985

"It Was My Habit to Learn on the Job"

     Chapter 7 · 1985-1986

   "Talk Less and Do More" 

       Cbapter 8 · 1986-1989

  "How Could I Not Know?" 

      "Part Two" Leadership

         1989-1996

         Chapter9 ·January-May 1989

    "Get Prepared for a Protracted Struggle"

          Chapter 1o · May-June 1989

    "I Feel the Heavy Burden on My Shoulders"

        Chapter 11· July-December 1989

          "Men Are Not Saints"

           Chapter 12 · 199o-1991

       "Stability Overrides Everything"

             Chapter 13 ·1992

    "Bold Explorations and Accelerated Reform"

             Chapter 14 ·1993

 "We Will Show the World That We Are Trustworthy"

             Chapter 15 ·1994

"The Outside World Has a Terrible Misunderstanding of China"

             Chapter 16· 1995

          "Spiritual Civilization"

             Chapter 17· 1996

         "Talk More About Politics"

      "Part Tbree ·Emergence

         1997-I999 

        Chapter 18 ·January- September 1997

      "How Can We Improve Their Lives?"

        Chapter 19 · October-December 1997

        "My Ears Still Work Very Well"

            …………