Though critics dismiss the Jiang book as propaganda, the public is glad to get any glimpse behind the nation’s great wall of secrecy.
American businessman Robert Lawrence Kuhn said he wrote a biography of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin to shed light on this Asian nation. Instead, “The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin” has mostly been mocked by U.S. critics, who call it an artful piece of propaganda.
Here in China, however, the book is a hit. Though critics dismiss the Jiang book as propaganda, the public is glad to get any glimpse behind the nation’s great wall of secrecy.
Biographies of living leaders are basically taboo. Any peek behind the country’s great wall of political secrecy has bestseller potential. One penned by a foreigner tends to have special cachet.