'I believe that Communist Party rule will end in China; sooner or later all dynasties do. But when or how, I cannot say...It was with these questions in mind that I travelled through the Chinese-speaking world between 1996 and 2001. There was an unmistakable stink of political, social and moral decay in the People's Republic, the smell of a dynasty at the end of its tether.' Travelling through the US, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China, Ian Buruma tells the personal stories of Chinese rebels who dare to stand up to their rulers. From the exiles of Tiananmen to the hidden Christians in rural China, he brings alive the human dimension to their struggles and reveals the world's most secretive superpower through the eyes of its dissidents.