China Diary grew out of a random series of articles I wrote for theMorning Star, starting in 1988. The Morning Star was (and I believe stillis) the only daily newspaper in English in the world with a socialistperspective. The paper had a tradition of close coverage of the SovietUnion and the Eastern European countries, and it seemed a glaringomission that it contained scarcely a word about events in the biggestsocialist country in the world--China.