Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China.

• Author: Moloughney, Brian
• Position: The Changing Face of China: From Mao to Market - Book review

THUNDER FROM THE SILENT ZONE: Rethinking China

Author: Paul Monk Published by: Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2005, 336pp, $35.

THE CHANGING FACE OF CHINA: From Mao to Market

Author: John Gittings Published by: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, 384pp, $79.95.

These two books give us very different perspectives on the changing face of China. Paul Monk worked for a number of years as an East Asian specialist at Australia's Defence Intelligence Organisation. He is now head of Austhink, a consulting firm based in Melbourne. Monk sees himself as a generalist writing a book for an intelligent non-academic audience. His main concern is with Taiwan, and he looks at the mainland through Taiwanese eyes. John Gittings, in contrast, is a reporter who has lived for long periods in the People's Republic, beginning in 1971. His views on Chinas experiment with modernity have changed considerably over this time, and since 1989 he has become much less sanguine about the CCP, yet he retains a deep sympathy for Chinese people. What, then, can we learn from these two books about the nature of China and its place in the world today?

In the case of Thunder from the Silent Zone I am afraid that we learn very little of any value. This book is a deeply flawed polemic. Monk begins with a blistering attack on the state of the intelligence agencies in Australia, suggesting that 'it is far more difficult to use one's intelligence inside the real intelligence service than outside of it.' It was this experience that led him to write what he calls these 'wide-ranging and uncensored reflections on China', which include an analysis of the Taiwan question that he believes directly challenges 'the conventional wisdom and will, quite certainly, nettle the gatekeepers of current policy.' Monk maintains this tone throughout the book. He understands China and the challenge it poses; no one else does.

His title comes from a poem Lu Xun wrote in Shanghai during the White Terror (1927) protesting the suppression of dissent and the failure to uphold the rights of the individual. This is the theme of Monk's book, although he focuses his critique on the CCP, not the Guomindang. Indeed, Monk sees Taiwan as presenting an example of how China should develop, and he argues that because of the 'silent zone,' which exists both inside and outside of the People's Republic, too many people avoid challenging the Chinese leadership about fundamental issues, particularly the continual abuse...