Desmond Shum, author of "Red Roulette," offers a gripping insider's view of wealth and power in China. He reveals how his family's exile from the CCP shaped his perspective and dives into the chilling realities of corruption that fuel business success. Desmond recounts his wife Whitney's mysterious disappearance and a haunting phone call she made years later, warning him against sharing his story. He also discusses the chilling effects of state control on personal safety, making it clear that ambition can come at a steep price in an authoritarian regime.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Low Social Status of Intellectuals
Desmond Shum's parents, both intellectuals, were deemed undesirables by the CCP.
This low social status limited their opportunities and led to their eventual move to Hong Kong.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Moving to Hong Kong
Desmond Shum's family moved from China to Hong Kong after Mao's death.
They used the excuse of visiting relatives, a common way to leave China at the time.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Tiananmen Square Massacre
The Tiananmen Square Massacre began as a protest against corruption and evolved into a call for democracy.
The CCP's violent response, including tanks rolling over protesters, was a defining moment.
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An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China
Desmond Shum
John Pomfret
Red Roulette is a memoir by Desmond Shum that offers a rare insider's perspective on China's elite, detailing his rise to wealth and power alongside his wife Whitney Duan. The book explores the corrupt relationships and guanxi that define China's business and political landscape, revealing the darker side of China's economic reforms. It also highlights the personal costs of navigating such a system, including the disappearance of his ex-wife Whitney Duan.
Thinking in bets
Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
Annie Duke
In this book, Annie Duke teaches readers how to make better decisions by treating them as 'bets' on uncertain outcomes. She emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between the quality of a decision and its outcome, acknowledging the role of luck, and avoiding biases such as 'resulting' and hindsight bias. Duke draws on her experiences as a professional poker player and combines these with insights from cognitive psychology and other fields to provide tools for making more objective and thoughtful decisions. The book encourages readers to get comfortable with uncertainty, seek truth through diverse opinions, and learn from outcomes to improve future decision-making[1][3][5].
1984
None
George Orwell
Published in 1949, '1984' is a cautionary tale by George Orwell that explores the dangers of totalitarianism. The novel is set in a dystopian future where the world is divided into three super-states, with the protagonist Winston Smith living in Oceania, ruled by the mysterious and omnipotent leader Big Brother. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the Party's ever-changing narrative. He begins an illicit love affair with Julia and starts to rebel against the Party, but they are eventually caught and subjected to brutal torture and indoctrination. The novel highlights themes of government surveillance, manipulation of language and history, and the suppression of individual freedom and independent thought.
Why Desmond's intellectual schoolteacher parents were treated as undesirables by the CCP, and how this led to his family's self-exile to then-British Hong Kong when he was 10.
What the CCP does to keep evidence of events like the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre out of the public eye -- and what Desmond's impression of this particular event was like.
How the economic necessity of corruption to make business sustainable under the watchful eye of the CCP is used as a bargaining chip to keep the operators of these businesses in line.
The path that led Desmond and his wife Whitney to the inner circle of the CCP and allowed them to make billions with the government's blessing -- and the amount of work that went into maintaining the network that allowed this to continue.
The circumstances of Whitney's disappearance, and the eerie phone call he received from her four years later urging him not to publish his tell-all book.
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