From renowned, prize-winning historian Frank Dikötter – ‘the historian of China’ (Spectator) – a commanding new history of China’s path to Communism, brought to the people at the barrel of a gun

A FINANCIAL TIMES HIGHLIGHT FOR 2026

'The most important reappraisal of modern China to appear in years' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed

From renowned, prize-winning historian Frank Dikötter – ‘the historian of China’ (Spectator) – a commanding new history of China’s path to Communism, brought to the people at the barrel of a gun.

The history of modern China has long been portrayed as a tale of Communists fighting in the hills for freedom, gradually gaining popular support by taking land from the rich and giving it to the poor. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Red Dawn Over China reveals how unlikely the Party's victory actually was, had it not been for financial and military support from the Soviet Union.

Established in 1921 under the direct guidance of Moscow, for the best part of a decade the Communist Party left a trail of destruction, besieging towns and plundering the countryside. When the Communists managed to hold territory, they reduced the villagers to a state of servitude, undermining belief in their cause as well as the local economy. By 1936 they had the same popular appeal as an obscure religious sect. A brutal war of occupation by Japan allowed them to survive far behind enemy lines. After Soviet troops invaded Manchuria in 1945 and provided more money and munitions, the Communists at long last prevailed through a pitiless war of attrition, driven by an unflinching will to conquer at all costs.

In this riveting tale told with great narrative verve, Frank Dikötter reveals how thirteen delegates gathered in a dusty room in 1921 ended up raising the red flag over the Forbidden City in 1949, forever altering the course of history for a quarter of humanity and shaping the world as we know it today.

Praise for Frank Dikötter and the People's Trilogy:

'Harrowing and brilliant' Ben Macintyre
'Gripping and masterful' Simon Sebag Montefiore
'One of the few books that anyone who wants to understand the twentieth century simply must read' New Statesman

Details

ISBN13: 9781526670717
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 384
Edition:
Publication Date:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.2(H)x15.2(L)x3.6(W)500
Weight (gm): 500

Author Biography

Frank Dikötter lives in Palo Alto, California, where he is the Milias Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. His books have changed the way historians view China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China to his award-winning People's Trilogy documenting the lives of ordinary people under Mao.

Reviews

Frank Dikötter has rewritten the early history of the Chinese Communist Party from the ground up. Drawing on archival materials long thought inaccessible, he strips away decades of myth to reveal a story of improvisation, violence and opportunism. Written with precision and verve, Red Dawn Over China is the most important reappraisal of modern China to appear in years -- PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed
Frank Dikötter’s books have changed the way historians view China. Red Dawn Over China is a commanding new history of China’s path to Communism, brought to the people at the barrel of a gun -- Maggie Fergusson * Tablet *
An account of the surprising realities behind the Communist party’s rise in China, from years of plundered villages and minimal popular support to survival under Japanese occupation. Dikötter, an acclaimed historian of China, traces how, with Soviet backing and relentless determination, a marginal movement became a world force * Financial Times, What to Read in 2026 *
Anyone interested in the future of the People’s Republic of China should first study its past. Reading Red Dawn Over China is the best way to start -- H. R. McMASTER, author of Dereliction of Duty