CHINESE SPIES from Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping.

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Hoadley, Stephen

CHINESE SPIES

from Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping

Author. Roger Faligot

Published by: Scribe Publications, Melbourne and London, 2019, 507pp, $39.99.

From its modest beginning during the Battle of Shanghai in the 1920s, the intelligence service has grown to become a vital contributor to the dominance of the Communist Party of China and the rise of the People's Republic of China to super-power status. It is now the largest intelligence service in the world, surpassing in personnel and scope of activities the KGB/GRU/ FSB, the CIA/FBI, MI6/ MI5 and the DGSE/Gendarmerie.

The bulk of Faligot's book is a chronological narrative of a century of evolution, interweaving details of institutions, personalities, factions and intrigues. The author's journalistic bent and competence in Mandarin are reflected in intriguing chapter titles such as 'Deng Xiaoping's Deep-Water Fish', 'Sea Lamprey Tactics', 'The 610 Office...