A Thought on China Inspired by Some Recent Russia Reading

Posted: August 22nd, 2025 | No Comments »

I thought I’d make a point that has been rattling round my head for a while. Just finished Our Dear Friends in Moscow about the consolidation of the Putin era and how opponents, liberals and the media responded – including those who had known the darker days of the latter Soviet Union and the chaotic Yeltsin era. The authors now live in London.

Our Dear Friends joins a number of other insider accounts – including the posthumous Navalny diaries, other memoirs (especially those of the late Anna Politkovskaya) and the works of Pomerantsov explaining the surreal propaganda of Putin as well as the very clever novel of Putin’s inner circle from Da Empoli that has been a must-read in UK literary circles this year.

My point, apart from how good and insightful many of these titles are, is that they seem to me to be a form of analysis and insider accounts those of us following China exist almost totally without. Dissident works have been relatively few, sometimes good (Ma Jian etc) often disappointing (with the few dissidents writing slumping into religion or right wing ideologies). As far as the inner circles are concerned we lack anything useful either in fiction or non/fiction.

Of course we continue to get a slew of China books – academic, business, analysis from outsiders, informed (McGregor on the Party etc) or less informed (Navarro etc) but nothing that really takes us deep inside and zero from those who really participated in various ways like Pomerantsov or Soldatov and Boragon’s book here.

If anyone can think of anything do let me know? In Chinese or English – what am I missing that explains China like these books and others explain Russia?

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