The China Contract - by Clare Rewcastle Brown (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A fugitive hides in the boot of a car, fleeing Kuwait with documents that expose a secret one of the world's most powerful governments wants buried. When he contacts Clare Rewcastle Brown, the story that emerges is shocking: Chinese state companies helped Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak cover up the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal.

This explosive sequel to The Sarawak Report follows billions laundered through China and Kuwait, crooked infrastructure deals, and the CCP's use of corruption and influence to subvert foreign governments. From Hollywood excesses to geopolitical manipulation, and from Kuwaiti political upheaval to anti-SLAPP campaigns defending investigative journalism, Clare Rewcastle Brown exposes the machinery of global kleptocracy and China's shadow empire.

A real-life thriller of investigative journalism, this book is an urgent warning of how corruption and state power are reshaping democracies and the global order.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Sarawak Report'A monument to public-interest journalism' Peter Alford, The Australian

'A triumph' Andrew Leci, Unreserved

'A cracking read on an important financial scandal' Andrew Swan, Head of Global Emerging Markets Equities, Blackrock

'Deserves to be read as a lesson to us all in our attempts to construct a more humane and caring
world.' Victor T King, Mekong Review

'[The 1MDB scandal] would probably still be percolating if it hadn't been for Clare Rewcastle Brown ... She never stopped digging. What she dug up would form the basis for stories in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and a long list of other publications ... required reading.' John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel

'Rewcastle Brown's indefatigable attention to detail and exhaustive quest to expose the wrongdoing are a testimony to first-class investigative journalism ... essential reading.' Sean Smith, East Review

'Clare embarked on what can only be described as a brilliant 10-year journey of investigative journalism ... essential reading for all government officers in authority, to show them how sheer greed and colossal theft can deprive a country's entire population of their economic rights and benefits as a developing nation.' Howard Henshaw, Interlib

About the Author

Clare Rewcastle Brown
is a former British television news reporter and the founder and editor of the website Sarawak
Report set up to challenge the corruption driving deforestation in Malaysia
and Southeast Asia. Her investigations culminated in the exposure of the 1MDB
scandal involving the theft of $5 billion by the Malaysian Prime Minister
aided by numerous financial institutions including Goldmans Sachs which led to record
fines.

The
revelations are widely credited with bringing down the Malaysian government in the 2018 general
election, removing the ruling UMNO party from power for the first time since
the country's independence in 1957.

At the same
time, they sparked a major FBI money laundering investigation
and record DOJ asset seizure,
embarrassing global politicians, Hollywood stars and numerous professional
enablers.

Pushback
included
multiple vexatious legal threats suits, computer
hacking and surveillance by hired private investigators, black PR
operations, the imprisonment of a whistle-blower and the death of an
investigator.

Awards for
her work include:

-
the
United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNDOC) Anti-Corruption Excellence Award
for Journalism (2023)

-
the
International Press Institute's Pioneer of Media Freedom Award

-
Britain's
Women of the Year 2016

-
CNN's
One World Media Special Award.

In 2016 Fortune Magazine named her one of the World's 50 Most
Influential Figures.