Chinese Spies: from Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping’ Translated into English by the Natasha Lehrer

A 2008-released book titled “Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping” was translated into English from the updated 4th edition by the writer, editor, and translator, Natasha Lehrer. The book ‘Chinese Spies’ was authored by French journalist Roger Faligot and originally published in French in 2008.

The foreword of the book is written by Vikram Sood - the former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s foreign intelligence agency. 

The book gives a credible, detailed, and accessible account of Chinese intelligence agencies. 

In 1920s Shanghai, Zhou Enlai founded the first Chinese communist spy network, operating in the shadows against nationalists, Western powers, and the Japanese. The story of Chinese spies has been a global one from the start. 

Working as scientists, journalists, diplomats, foreign students, and businessmen, they’ve been everywhere, from Stalin’s purges to 9/11. This murky world has swept up Ho Chi Minh, the Clintons, and everyone in between, with the action moving from Cambodia to Cambridge, and from the Australian outback to the centers of Western power. 

This fascinating narrative exposes the sprawling tentacles of the world’s largest intelligence service, from the very birth of communist China to Xi Jinping’s absolute rule today. In the twenty-first century, the Chinese intelligence services, an umbrella term that includes several organizations, rival the largest in the world.

Roger Faligot is an investigative journalist and author of many books on European and Asian intelligence. His works include ‘The Chinese Mafia in Europe and La Piscine’, the first history of France’s secret services.

   Important points for the exam:

• The book titled “Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping” was translated into English by Natasha Lehrer - writer, editor, and translator.
• The book was authored by the French investigative journalist Roger Flight.
• The foreword of the book is written by Vikram Sood - the former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s foreign intelligence agency. 
• The book gives a credible, detailed, and accessible account of Chinese intelligence agencies. 
• The narratives in the book expose the sprawling tentacles of the world’s largest intelligence service, from the very birth of communist China to Xi Jinping’s absolute rule today.