If you were alarmed by the recent spectacle of Chinese President Xi Jinping cosying up with Vladimir Putin, you will not find Jung Chang’s new book a comforting read.

In celebrated works, such as Wild Swans (1991) and Mao: The Unknown Story (2005), which she co-wrote with her husband Jon Halliday, Chang has chronicled China from its imperial era, through the long and bloody Cultural Revolution and Great Famine, in which she says 38 million starved to death, to the present. Her books are vital records of China’s past, often giving voice to the people who lived through it, and offer perceptive warnings for today when it is building its global influence.

Readers cherish Chang’s books for offering glimpses of a vast and opaque nation. China’s Government fears them for the same reason

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