Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China

THE BOOK CHINA DOESNT WANT YOU TO READ. CNN SELECTED AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by THE ECONOMIST and FINANCIAL TIMES This powerful and disturbing (Bill Browder, author of Red Notice) New York Times bestseller is narrated by a man who, with his wife, Whitney Duan, rose to the top levels of power and wealthand then fell out of favor. Whitney had been disappeared four years before, but this book led to her dramatic reemergence. As Desmond Shum was growing up impoverished in China, he vowed his life would be different. Through hard work and sheer tenacity he earned an American college degree and returned to his native country to establish himself in business. There, he met his future wife, the highly intelligent and equally ambitious Whitney Duan who was determined to make her mark within Chinas male-dominated society. Whitney and Desmond formed an effective team and, aided by relationships they formed with top members of Chinas Communist Party, the so-called red aristocracy, he vaulted into Chinas billionaire class. Soon they were developing the massive air cargo facility at Beijing International Airport, and they followed that feat with the creation of one of Beijings premier hotels. They were dazzlingly successful, traveling in private jets, funding multi-million-dollar buildings and endowments, and purchasing expensive homes, vehicles, and art. But in 2017, their fates diverged irrevocably when Desmond, while residing overseas with his son, learned that his now ex-wife Whitney had vanished along with three coworkers. This vivid, explosive memoir shows how the Chinese government keeps business in lineand what happens when businesspeople overstep (The New York Times) and is a singular, highly readable insider account of the most secretive of global powers (The Spectator).