Harrison Salisbury's knowledge of China and its leaders - based on twenty years of study and first-hand research - has produced an epic narrative history of the new Communist dynasty. As he surveys the convulsive events that shaped modern China - the Nationalist-Communist civil war, the Communist takeover, the mass famine following the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution - Salisbury focuses on Mao and Deng and their complex relationship. How Deng won Mao's favour by building Mao's secret Third Line, a gigantic industrial redoubt whose crippling cost was in inverse proportion to its ultimate strategic value, and rose to power; how he was ousted and persecuted by Mao during the Cultural Revolution; how he was recalled by Mao and then toppled by Mao's wife; and how General Ye Jianying plotted to the Gang of Four and install Deng as the "new emperor" - all are sketched in dramatic detail. "A fascinating story .enlivened by personal anecdotes and packed with splendid reports of the two "New Emperors" that will make addictive reading not only for diplomats, scholars and their colleagues, but also for businessmen and tourists." CLARE HOLLINGWORTH,' Daily Telegraph' "A mind-shaking book.a brilliant, indeed a revolutionary piece of historical writing" ARTHUR MILLER "It is not just good history but very good reporting.Anyone interested in China should read this book" LITERARY REVIEW "A stunningly detailed account of two enigmatic figures" FINANCIAL TIMES "Brilliant and extraordinary" NIEN CHEUNG, Author of 'Life and Death in Shanghai'.