There is very little about China here (in fact there is more about the US), this is strictly a memoir.

"Dear Diary,
Today I saved the world economy and the environment. Again. I am best boss. I had lunch with some Chinese guys I despise (what simpletons they all are). No sacrifice too big for my country."

Wish this book had a more honest title. What surprised me most was how boring his life was. I have to assume he's holding out on the interesting bits. This would mesh with the level of honesty exhibited by the fact that he badmouths the Chinese leaders but only those who have been removed from power by now. I wonder if he realised how much that would stand out. ( )

I’m going to keep this short, unlike Dealing With China. It’s long, its boring, it goes into great detail about interactions the author, Paulson, experiences he had while working with China and being a government official, but it doesn’t explain much at all past the dialogue shared. Some chapters (or parts of chapters & definitely not enough to make the book worth reading) were interesting, overall though I just could not care. More background was needed to explain China’s history and a more broader sense of the changes that were made, we only see Paulson’s view and it is very limited and confusing when not put into greater context of China’s ways. ( )

“It was then and it remains to a greater extent today that China is governed by men and not by laws” – one of the many no-holds-barred statement by Hank Paulson in his memoir of China. Hank Paulson had an unprecedented access to the top leadership of Communist Party of China (CPC); an access that caused an envy even among the Government Officials in China. The book divided into 3 parts – 1/3 on his experiences from putting a foot of his firm in China to his firm getting synonymous in any deal related to China; 1/3 on his experiences as a Treasury Secretary and the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED); 1/3 on general commentary which revolves around the Political Leadership and the Way Forward for China.

As the head of Goldman Sachs and then as the Treasury Secretary during the Bush administration, Hank Paulson seamlessly switches track from “doing specific deals “to “Policy specifics” in the course of the book. The book is peppered with instances related to the culture and mannerism of the Chinese officials. Paulson is credited to opening the doors of China to private enterprises and he takes us through the deals of IPO’s and strategic investments his firm had conducted during his tenure. He manages to give a reader a top-level view on how China has pivoted from a trade-outsider to a backbone of world economy. The fight for economic reforms, bank loans & corruption cleansing are well documented. I got a sense of Déjà vu while reading about bank loans gone rotten; a fight that the incumbent RBI Governor is undertaking for Indian Banks.

A nice side-track is Paulson’s involvement in developing a Management course in Tsinghua university. Upon the request of then Premier – Zhu Rongji, Paulson used the expertise of deans in HBS and INSEAD, and host of leaders in Global Enterprises to make an executive course . In typical Pauslon style, he points to the Cultural Revolution during Mao’s regime that prevented a generation of men & women who lost their education during university shutdown.

Paulson takes the sensitive issues head on - freedom of press, censoring of internet, censoring of dissent, pollution & environmental concerns. The book gives you a balanced view point of China but after finishing the book , I felt underwhelmed . The top view approach remains a top-view. The author does not really dissect the issues to deep-down level. If the author had written the views of his junior colleagues who would have dealt with the Chinese Officials at a different level, the actual workings of China would have been in display.

It is sad to see some reader who know nothing about China accidentally stumbled upon this book had to gave up due to lack of basic understanding. However it is quite unfair to lashed out on the book and its author.
To someone who knows a bit more, even better, for someone lived or still lives in China, this book is both informative and entertaining.
Reading it, one can almost find who's who in the past 25 years that dramatically changed this country and shaped its future. ( )