The Twisting Dragon

This is not a history book, but a novel, and a historical novel only in the sense that it is a mixture of fiction and historical reality; and partly autobiographical. After all that has been published about Mao Zedong's China, its author attempts to give his own vision of Mao's years of decline.

How could it happen that after the initial good beginning the Chinese leader caused one disaster after another? Why did the Chinese people not only patiently suffer these catastrophes but actually collaborate massively?

These and many other questions will be asked by anyone who studies this period. The answers are not easy to find, but they are in part contained in China's history.

In 1962 in Peking, when China was only just recovering from the terrible famine which was the result of Mao's insane 'Great Leap Forward', I happened to be able - and this was a rare opportunity - to speak privately with the Prime Minister Mr. Zhou Enlai at a reception, when his interpreter was absent for a short while.

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