In this highly readable account by a renowned expert on Chinese politics, we enter China's real channels of power, known to all participants but invisible to most observers. In this shadow world behind the formal organizational charts, power runs vertically through gateways, or mouths (kous), that connect Beijing to the smallest local neighborhoods in this far-flung land. The mouths of power are guarded by the most powerful men in the nation.

It is a world of organizations but no institutions, of constantly changing rules.

With a focus on the period of Communist Party rule since 1949, Lieberthal shows how the ways and forms of power were precipitated out of the rush of historical events in twentieth-century China. He presents compelling accounts of major events from the Long March through the Cultural Revolution, to China's post-Tiananmen economic surge, and incisive analyses of their political meaning.

Lieberthal also explores the key issues challenging China now - succession at the top, a destabilizing level of economic growth, a degraded environment, human rights, the impending takeover of Hong Kong, and relations with Taiwan.