Books by Jasper Becker

The author of a definitive book on famine in Mao's China assesses the economic DNA of Communism as a global phenomenon.

What might COVID-19 mean for, and reveal about, ChinaΓÇÖs place in the world?The coronavirus pandemic started in Wuhan, home to the leading lab studying the SARS virus and bats. Was that pure coincidence? This book explores what we know, and still donΓÇÖt know, about the origins of COVID-19, and how it was handled in China.We may never get all the answers, but much is already clear: ChinaΓÇÖs record as the origin of earlier pandemics, and its struggle to bring contagious diseases under control; its history as both a victim of biological warfare and a developer of deadly bioweapons. When Covid broke out, Wuhan was building science parks to realise BeijingΓÇÖs ambitions in biotech research. Whoever achieves global leadership of the gene-editing industry stands to harvest great power and wealth.China has already challenged Western technological supremacy with 5G and in other industries. Yet this tiny, invisible virus has cruelly exposed a critical flaw in the Chinese political system: obsessive secrecy. The West wanted to trust the PRC, hoping that, as it prospered, it would become an open society. Made in China reveals how BeijingΓÇÖs leaders have betrayed that trust.

Takes the reader inside one of the most secretive countries in the world, exposing the internal chaos, blind faith, rampant corruption, and terrifying cruelty of its rulers. This work details the vain efforts to change North Korea by actors inside and outside the country and the dangers this highly volatile country continues to pose.