In 1949, after a bloody civil war, Mao Zedong raised the red flag in the Forbidden City in Beijing. But the victory of the Communist Party of China over the forces of Chiang Kai-shek did not bring peace, freedom and justice, but the establishment of the system of terror typical of totalitarian regimes and systematic violence that caused the death of five million people. In light of the data uncovered after the recent opening of the government archives of the People's Republic, Frank Dikötter constructs a shocking chronicle of the Chinese revolution in which the testimonies of civilians and the analysis of the brutal policies of the Mao government are combine to offer us a revealing document. This fascinating book — second volume in the "people's trilogy," which also includes Mao's The Great Famine in China, also published in Cliff — gives voice to the vast numbers of victims of communism in China silenced for decades and sheds light on the origins of one of the world powers of the XXI century.