xi 395 pages, indexed, annotated, bibliography, black and white plates. The pages are lightly tanned, else the book appears unread. ""Tiger on the Brink is the first full-length study of the rise to power of Jiang Zemin - now the central figure in China's new "third generation" leadership - from his beginnings as the adopted son of a revolutionary martyr and his days as a student in the underground Communist movement in Shanghai to his sudden elevation as Deng Xiaoping's successor in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and his confirmation as senior leader after Deng's death."