The Gate to China

The rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule are told with unique insight in this new history by Michael Sheridan, drawing on documents from archives in China and the West, interviews with key figures, and eyewitness reporting over three decades.

The story takes the listener from the earliest days of trade through the Opium Wars of the nineteenth century to the age of globalization, the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, the fight for democracy on the city's streets, and the ultimate victory of the Chinese Communist Party.

As the West seeks a new China policy, we learn from private papers how Margaret Thatcher anguished over the fate of Hong Kong, sought secret American briefings on how to deal with Beijing, and put her trust in a spymaster who was tormented by his own doubts.

The Chinese version of history, so often unheard, emerges from memoirs and documents, many of them entirely new to the foreign listener, which reveal China's negotiating tactics. The voices of Hong Kong people—eloquent, smart, and bold—speak compellingly here at every turn.