On September 29, 1999, US National Intelligence Council (NIC) discussed their five-year assessment on the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC). This was prior to China’s admission to the World Trade Organisation and after the mistaken NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, for which President Clinton apologised to Jiang Zemin.
The NIC papers need to be analysed to evaluate French journalist Roger Faligot’s riveting Chinese Spies—from Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping, although he does not refer to it. This book proves what seniors in external intelligence had told me—the French were the best informed on China.
