Red Roulette

'THE BOOK CHINA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ' CNN

'READS LIKE A THRILLER' FINANCIAL TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2021

In the headline-making and bestselling tradition of Bill Browder's Red Notice comes a unique and incendiary memoir from an entrepreneur who rose to the zenith of power and money in 21st century China and whose wife was disappeared - and then mysteriously reappeared four years later on the eve of Red Roulette's publication and global media coverage about it.

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 China's male-dominated society. Whitney and Desmond formed an effective team and, aided by relationships they formed with top members of China's Communist Party, the so-called Red Aristocracy, he vaulted into China's 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 Beijing's premier hotels. They were dazzlingly successful, travelling 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 living overseas with his son, learned that his now ex-wife Whitney had vanished along with three co-workers.

In Red Roulette Desmond Shum pulls back the curtain on China's ruling elite and reveals the real truth of what is happening inside China's wealth-making machine. This is both Desmond's story and Whitney's, because she has not been able to tell it herself.

'The book China doesn't want you to read.' 'Powerful and disturbing…The Chinese government will not be happy with this book....Rarely has anyone in modern China been brave enough to violate its oppressive code of silence and give an honest first-hand account of what really goes on in the corridors of power.' 'The book is full of fabulous titbits... It was a period of so much scheming that the Beijing Hotel employed two full-time coordinators to stagger guests so as to prevent inconvenient encounters. It's this level of detail on Beijing's inner workings that has clearly spooked the communist high command. Shum's recollections are still deeply embarrassing for the Chinese Communist Party, making this memoir a singular, highly readable insider account of the most secretive of global powers.' 'The machine was right to be worried. Large scandals of the recent past are revisited in Red Roulette… [The book] details an elite China built on secrets and fear, in which family ties are one of the only reliable bonds of trust.' 'Offers a rare peek into the luxe lifestyles of China's elites…a vivid portrait.' 'A rare alternative to China's tightly controlled, state-sponsored narratives. In his book, Shum poses an urgent question: "What type of system allows for extra-legal kidnappings of the type that befell Whitney Duan?"' 'Red Roulette was already shaping up as a must-read account of corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party. But the sudden reemergence last week of Whitney Duan, Shum's former wife, four years after disappearing into apparent arbitrary detention in Beijing, has made the book a news story.' 'Red Roulette is everything those who follow China have been waiting for: a deeply personal epic that reveals the idealism, ecstasy and avarice of post-Deng Xiaoping China…There simply isn't another inside history of today's Chinese leadership like this one. If it spawns a new genre of Chinese personal histories - as I hope it will - Red Roulette will remain the classic of its category. Desmond Shum's book is riveting, moving and dangerous.