“The Most Wanted Man in China is a remarkable memoir, full of candor, insight, and wit. Fang Lizhi writes with ease and precision and astute intelligence. He shows how a society was corrupted and shaped by absolute power and how the people suffered but managed to survive. It is an informative and intimate book.” —Ha Jin, author of Waiting and War Trash

“A remarkable story, told with honesty and eloquence.” —Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans

“Fang Lizhi’s memoir is the most biting and the wittiest critique to date of the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders. One of China’s leading scientists, Fang explores the absurdities in the party’s logic, its hypocrisies and cruelties. His observations are at once comic and tragic, making the book a pleasure to read.” —James Mann, author of Beijing Jeep, About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, and The China Fantasy

“The Most Wanted Man in China makes for wistful reading. Beautifully translated by Perry Link, it is a pleasant reminder of what an interesting, truthful and intellectually wide-ranging man the Chinese astrophysicist Fang Lizhi actually was. But it is also a sad reminder of how the rigidity of the Chinese Communist Party has too often prevented it from finding a way of embracing so many of China's most creative, honest, thoughtful, and eloquent citizens.” —Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society

“Like the great dissidents of the Soviet era, Fang Lizhi was a world-class scientist who came to the human rights cause through a pure and unflinching intellectual honesty. This vivid memoir ranges broadly across China’s turbulent twentieth century, from the privileged realms of its intelligentsia to the destitute farmland of its peasantry. Always engaging and frequently downright funny, Fang shows us the true meaning of free thinking in an authoritarian state. His story is critical to understanding today’s China.” —Kenneth Roth, executive director, Human Rights Watch

“Fang Lizhi, a first-rate scientist as well as a democracy proponent who pushed history forward, might be called the perfect crystallization of China’s May Fourth ideals of science and democracy. Anyone who seeks an understanding of China’s past, present, and future should start here.” —Ying-shih Yu, professor emeritus of Chinese history, Princeton University

“Fang Lizhi was a courageous and idealistic scientist whose life played out against the turbulent background of a fast-changing China. His engaging personality, his huge talent, his resilience in the face of hardship and political pressure, and (above all) his integrity shine through in this fascinating memoir.”—Martin Rees, fellow and former master of Trinity College, Cambridge; former president of the Royal Society; and Astronomer Royal