Book review: New book features interviews with country's current and future leaders

Who are China's leaders? How do they think? What does it mean for the future?

These are the questions of the moment about an economic superpower. Is there a looming "China threat" or an emerging "China model"?

How China's Leaders Think - The Inside Story of China's Reform and What This Means for the Future draws on personal, candid conversations with more than 100 Chinese leaders across all sectors .

Author Robert Lawrence Kuhn presents an insider's view of how those who lead China feel about their country's growing global strength - in trade, business and finance; in diplomacy, defense and security; in science, technology and innovation, and in culture, media and sports .

Having spent much of his career in China with China's leaders, Kuhn uses his inner access to high-level Communist Party officials to speak exclusively with China's leaders at private companies and State-owned enterprises, and in the fields of banking, foreign affairs, military, healthcare, religion, media, Internet, film and literature.

Kuhn asks China's leaders what they make of economic imbalances, pollution, unsustainable development, corruption, migrant workers, unemployment and crime.

He also confronts China's leaders on the issues of human rights, censorship, religious freedom, ethnic clashes, international conflicts and superpower rivalries.

Writing with an insider's perspective and voice, Kuhn focuses on President Hu Jintao's philosophies and policies, including the road to political reform and prospects for democracy.

Significantly, Kuhn looks to the next (or "fifth") generation of China's senior political leaders.

This book reflects the personal visions and collective commitment of China's senior leaders, including the next generation who will come to full power in 2012. Most readers will not get closer to China's leaders than this.

Book name: How China's Leaders Think - The Inside Story of China's Reform and What This Means for the Future

Author: Robert Lawrence Kuhn

ISBN: 978-0-470-82445-0

Price: $34.95; 576 pages

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd

(China Daily 11/16/2009 page8)