In Search of a Coffin

China as seen through the eyes of a person who was born a celestial now lives in an occidental world; the events of the twentieth Century China were recounted through his eyes in melancholy and nostalgia. This book is a narrative of China?s past and a guide that points to its future.


After an absence of more than twenty years, a British intelligence officer returned to Hong Kong with the instruction to find a solution to end the impasse in the Sino-British negotiations on the future of Hong Kong. In an effort to break the deadlock, London decided to use the secret service officer?s strong connections in China to make a behind-the-scene approach to his Chinese counterpart in an attempt to reach the top Chinese leadership, to find a way out of the stalemate.


In Search of a Coffin gives an insight into the top Chinese leadership and a different world of espionage. For most part, the book illustrates the part spies play in shaping international relations ? a far cry from the fictional James Bond as depicted in popular movies and novels hitherto. The tradecraft of spying in the real world has little to do with the frolics of 007; a license to kill is not high on the agenda.


China?s rapid rise as an emerging world power would not be as fast as we have seen without the Chinese intelligence and security services. Even today, thousands of dedicated men and women of China?s secret services are still working and living amongst the general population in the West to ensure their nation?s continuing success on the world stage.


The book ends on the morning of 4 June 1989, the day Chinese troops went into Tiananmen Square in Peking. It marks the end of the first chapter in the history of Communist China. This book is the first volume in a trilogy that will trace the development of China into the twenty-first century.


About the Author


David Ross was born and educated in Shanghai, China. After coming to the West, he spent his entire adult life serving in the various departments of state of the United Kingdom government. He has witnessed some of the major international events in the second half of the twentieth century from the fringes. Mr. Ross is privileged in that he has a deep understanding of the Oriental and the Occidental minds; therefore, he is able to present a novel on China and the West seen from a different angle, hitherto not attempted.