Tag Archives: 50 centers

Book Launch Event and the 50 Centers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very.” Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. – Mark Twain

 

 

 

The book has “officially” launched as of June 4. The publisher got things out a bit early so we’ve been on Amazon and in some stores for a few weeks. Its a great feeling to see the finished product after a year and its great to get to spend time talking about something you really care about.

The best part is meeting a bunch of great people during the research both in the US and China. Most of those in China I dare not thank publicly. We dedicated the book to them and everyone in China who yearns to be free. June 4 is the perfect day to rededicate that.

In the US I could go on. I first want to thank Peter for his patience in the process. Having a co-author has got to be difficult for anyone and for someone as prolific as he I’m sure it was a times a burden. I know Peter and I would also thank our patient and lovely wives and our sons for understanding all the time we had to put into this.

We’d also like to thank the hundreds of MBA students we’ve had at Merage through the years, particularly those who challenge us and those from China. I’ve got too many friends to list, but they know who they are.

I’d like to thank fellow writers Paul Midler – if you have not read his Poorly Made in China do so immediately – and Damon DiMaro, the coauthor (with Baiqiao Tang) of My Two Chinas and several other great books. Both their works demonstrate an extraordinary level of insight and word craft that I aspire too and their advice has been invaluable. (Paul, I still owe you a dinner in either Shenzen or California!)

On June 7 we are going to have the opportunity to hang with a few of our new friends and I hope many of our readers can join us. See the events tab of our website for more details, but Peter will be speaking and I will be hosting an all-star panel with:

 

Baiqiao Tang – Author of My Two Chinas: The Memoir of a Chinese Counter-Revolutionary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordon Chang– Author of The Coming Collapse of China and Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Fletcher – Author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Li Fengzhi – Former Chinese Intelligence Agent

 

The launch event is at the fantastic Beckman Center in Irvine. A great room and there will be books for sale and more. You can get tickets on line. Start at the event tab on our website:  http://deathbychina.com/events.html

The only really bummer with the process has been the sad little army of stooges who are charged with discrediting our book on Amazon.com. These “50-centers” are a group of junior commies who scour the Internet to try and keep any “bad talk” about China’s ruling elite suppressed. They are either paid half a RMB (hence 50cents) or do so out of a perverted since of national dedication. Anyway, they destroyed the ratings on The Coming China Wars (Navarro’s previous book, with which I assisted some) and are now on a one a day mission to stop American’s from reading Death by China.

Being the cowards they are and raised in a culture lacking all ethics, they lie that they are Americans or Europeans and cheat by posting reviews that usually make it clear they’ve never read the book. Its amusing to look at the review distribution for The Coming China Wars and see that all the 1-stars have created a REVERSE BELL CURVE; highly unlikely, indeed.

Their English is sometimes very good – I have to say many of my Chinese MBA students are better writers than their native born classmates. They are most easily spotted if you go to their “other reviews” where you will likely see that all their reviews are negative and concern books about China and computer programming manuals. Sometimes they even recruit real American friends or business associates to attack a book they describe as “racists” or “fascists” or “hateful.” It’s sadly ironic that they are actually describing their bosses in Beijing.

Now we know our book isn’t perfect and we expect reasonable people to disagree on important topics. We’ve been pleased to see some very legitimate suggestions for improvement. However, we also know nobody is going to buy and read a book called “Death by China” and then give it a “1-star” rating because it turns out that it is really very critical of China. LOL guys! Nor are they going to buy a book by an author they claim to dislike so much for his previous works. Anyway that isn’t how American’s behave – vandalism – even when they disagree.

So as pathetic as it is, we are asking for all your help in countering this sabotage by fairly rating our book and using Amazon’s “was this review helpful” button to vote on what is and isn’t nonsense. Please help us rescue The Coming China Wars in the same way.

For those of you who have never posted an Amazon review you just find the book, scroll all the way down to the bottom where the review are and then click on the button on the right that says “Create Your Own Review.” Select the number of “stars” you’d like to give 1-5 with 5 being tops. Then just be honest about what you read, liked, and didn’t like.

Anyway thanks to everyone. Keep up the fight. Freedom, peace, and prosperity are the reward and that is surely worth a few wounds.