Review: Red Roulette

A captivating book about the CCP today

The day before Red Roulette was supposed to hit bookstore shelves, the author Desmond Shum got a phone call from his ex-wife, who he hadn't heard from in four years.

In 2017 she was snatched from her office in Beijing and was never seen again. But in September 2021 he heard her voice on the other end of the line, begging him not to release the book he had written, a story about his humble beginnings over 50 years ago and how his career mirrored the rise of China.

It was his ex-wife, Whitney Duan Weihong who had taught him the ropes of how to do business in mainland China, and together they made multi-billion dollar deals that made them immensely wealthy.

Duan and Shum on their date before marrying

She was the one who cultivated their top-drawer contacts -- from local cadres rising up the ranks, to top senior officials in the Politburo. It really does sound like betting on horses and hoping that yours manages to cross the finish line without corruption charges in tow.

Shum was born in Shanghai, but as a child his parents sacrificed their relatively decent lifestyle to start all over in Hong Kong. He was frustrated at first, but his height and athleticism helped him become accepted in school, learning Cantonese and English, and later university in the United States.

After returning to Hong Kong, Shum managed to manoeuvre his way into China in the late 1990s and saw how anything was possible, but how?

Enter Duan, who would show him how it's done.

Red Roulette chronicles their rapid rise to the top where they flew private jets, bought expensive art work and had homes in various places. It's practically dizzying how Shum nonchalantly reels off how much they spent on wine and jewellery, but that it was the cost of doing business.

Wining and dining businessmen in Bordeaux 

Nevertheless, he reveals very interesting insider observations: Those headlines of officials charged with corruption or caught with lots of prostitutes are mostly false. Shum says they are concocted to justify taking these officials down, when in fact they led pretty clean lifestyles to climb up the political ladder.

Shum describes his relationships with a few of these officials who were later caught, and in the time that he knew them over several years, he claims they would not logistically even have time to cavort with hookers as they were tied up in meetings (with male officials) all day and night.

But he still does not know why Duan was taken and why she has never been formally charged. 

In media interviews, Shum has said that when she called him, he knew someone was next to her telling her what to say, and warning that someone was going to get hurt if the book was released.

He claims he wrote Red Roulette for his son Ariston, who is now 12 years old so that he will know what his parents had achieved and that Shum has no regrets.

Duan, Ariston and Shum in happier times

He also reveals his support for Hong Kong -- even attending the 2019 protests early on and voted in the last District Council election. But with the implementation of the national security law, which Shum says is heavy handed, he believes this is the end of Hong Kong as an international financial hub.

Before the book ends, Shum talks about Xi Jinping before and after he became the leader of China and makes some interesting personal observations about him.

A fascinating read that ties in various news stories that I have read over the years and interesting to see Shum's take as he knew many of these people personally.