{"title":"Optimum Publishing International","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780888903785","title":"Tibet Was Never A Part of China Since Antiquity","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs a signatory to the League of Nations and United Nations covenants, China promised not to conquer new territories after 1919. Therefore, after the People’s Republic of China (PRC) conquered Tibet in 1950, she saw the necessity of lying to the world that Tibet has always been an inseparable part of China.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this groundbreaking work, Dr. Hon-Shiang Lau, Ph. D., dismantles that narrative with clarity and precision. Drawing on official Chinese sources, imperial records, treaties, and eyewitness accounts, Lau demonstrates that Tibet’s relationship with China was neither one of continuous subjugation nor sovereign control. Instead, he reveals a far more complex and independent Tibetan history that stands apart from Beijing’s propaganda. With meticulous scholarship and accessible prose, Lau takes readers on a journey through centuries of contested borders, political maneuvering, and shifting alliances. The result is a compelling account that restores historical truth to the Tibetan people and dispels the many lies and fabrications propagated by the PRC. This book is not only a critical resource for historians and policymakers but also an essential work for anyone seeking to understand Tibet’s rightful place in world history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDr. Lau (劉漢城), Ph. D., is an independent historian and scholar specializing in East Asian history, with a focus on Tibet’s contested status and China’s evolving territorial claims. Educated in the sciences, Lau redirected his analytical expertise toward historical research, applying a rigorous, evidence-based methodology to one of the most politically sensitive subjects of our time. His work has been published in leading journals and is widely cited by Tibet advocacy groups, academics, and policymakers. Known for his ability to bring clarity to complex historical disputes, Lau draws on both Chinese and Western sources, including many authoritative primary-source materials largely overlooked in mainstream narratives. Through public lectures and writings, he has become a prominent voice challenging authoritarian disinformation and restoring historical truth to overlooked peoples. This book represents the culmination of decades of dedicated scholarship and stands as a landmark contribution to understanding Tibet’s modern and historical identity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368237183349,"sku":"9780888903785","price":61.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780888903785_ff4ddb2f-5be6-463e-b92d-8d7f343079dd.jpg?v=1788791213"},{"product_id":"china-nexus","title":"The China Nexus","description":"\u003cp\u003eBenedict Rogers, born in London, England, first went to China at age 18 to teach English for six months in Qingdao (1992), three years after the Tiananmen Square massacre. That opened the door to a thirty-year adventure with China, from teaching English in schools and hospitals to working as a journalist in Hong Kong for the first five years after the handover to travelling to China's borders with Myanmar\/Burma and North Korea to document the plight of refugees escaping from Beijing-backed satellite dictatorships and then campaigning for human rights in China, especially for Uyghurs, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners, human rights defenders, journalists and dissidents, and the people of Hong Kong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book tells the story of his fight for freedom for the peoples of China and neighbouring countries Myanmar and North Korea and sets out how a global movement for human rights in China is emerging and what the free world should do next. It describes the importance of the \"China Nexus\" in the author's journey and geopolitics and its challenges. Pioneering international inquiries into forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, the genocide of the Uyghurs and global action for Hong Kong, as well as highlighting the Vatican's silence, the author has been at the heart of advocacy for human rights in China in recent years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2017, on the orders of Beijing, he was denied entry to Hong Kong, 20 years after he had moved to the city and began his working life as a journalist and activist. Benedict Rogers co-founded Hong Kong Watch and worked with a variety of other international groups at the forefront of the fight for freedom, including the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for China (IPAC), the Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign, the China Democracy Foundation, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission which he co-founded, and the international human rights organization CSW with which he has worked for over 25 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book hits the Chinese Communist Party hard on their lack of Human Rights efficacy, genocide, and despicable and barbaric organ harvesting programs (an estimated $1 billion US a year business).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRogers takes the readers on a journey through some of the leaders and participants in the Human rights activities that China has suppressed since its inception in 1949. He goes on to dispute and lays to rest all of the specious claims by the tyrants in Beijing that all Chinese citizens are equal and are afforded human and civil rights. Currently, the regime is engaged in re-education, cultural assimilation, and multiple genocides, leading to better citizens for China and the world if one believes Chinese officials.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChina's ambassador to Canada says reports of genocide and forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province are the \"lie of the century,\" despite international bodies like the United Nations deeming the reports of such activities \"numerous and credible.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author will completely dispel that notion.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57483350704501,"sku":"9780888903273","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780888903273.jpg?v=1786178490"},{"product_id":"grenville-christian-college","title":"Grenville Christian College","description":"\u003cp\u003eAndrew Hale-Byrne, a student at the Grenville Christian College, tells the harrowing story of how an elitist cult on Cape Cod, founded by two self-proclaimed holy women, managed to infiltrate and take over a preppy Anglican boarding school in Ontario.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith patronage from the highest levels of Canada's government and business elites, Grenville College and its partners actively covered up abuse decades of abuse and malpractice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat followed were many years of institutional violence -- psychological, physical and sexual abuse -- against the children of the school, all under the guise of establishment Anglicanism. Andrew chronicles the history of the abused victims and how he exposed the school management, the cult and the Ontario establishment. The upper-crust cult on Cape Cod was a “who’s who” list of the cream of society, including a Rockefeller heiress, a Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a Chairman of Arthur Young. Andrew provides a look inside the peculiar world of a religious cult at the apex of American and Canadian societies, from the dizzying heights of wealth that backed the school to the harrowing suffering of students.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDue to Andrew's exposé, many victims of abuse have been targeted by retaliation campaigns launched by the school, its defenders and a corrupt Anglican hierarchy. However, death threats have not intimidated Andrew from his mission in his fight for justice, which culminated in the Canadian courts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMatters pertaining have now been proven in the Canadian courts. In the past two years, four judges in Ontario ruled in favour of Grenville Christian College litigants, awarding them 12 million dollars in damages. This was the first class action under the 1992 Class Proceedings Act of Ontario to go to a full common issues trial and the first to win. All previous court actions have been settled out of court.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile such a victory has been won, this sum is a mere pittance compared to the pain and suffering many have endured and continue to live with every day. Countless former students have committed suicide, including recently in the United States, where a former cult member self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the saga continues to twist and turn beyond the courtroom and into the lives of Grenville’s victims, Andrew presents a work documenting the extent of the school’s actions and those that covered up the systemic abuse emanating from this once-revered institution. These include four Lieutenant Governors, Members of Parliament, Diplomats, and Anglican Bishops.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57502176117109,"sku":"9780888903563","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780888903563.jpg?v=1786780995"},{"product_id":"9-11-the-unfinished-battle","title":"9\/11 The Unfinished Battle","description":"Twenty-five years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, former Canadian intelligence analyst Phil Gurski delivers a sober and deeply informed assessment of what the world misunderstood about terrorism, intelligence, and national security in the aftermath of 9\/11. Drawing on decades inside Canada’s intelligence community, 9\/11 The Unfinished Battle examines how the Global War on Terror reshaped governments, intelligence agencies, geopolitics, and civil liberties—while failing to eliminate the threat it sought to destroy.Far from a retrospective history, this book is a forward-looking analysis of how terrorism, espionage, foreign interference, and transnational repression continue to evolve. Gurski argues that the West’s greatest mistake was assuming the threat landscape had fundamentally changed, when in reality many of the same ideological and geopolitical forces remain firmly in place. Combining intelligence insight with geopolitical analysis, 9\/11 The Unfinished Battle offers a pragmatic blueprint for building long-term security without sacrificing democratic values.\"Phil Gurski delivers a clear, compelling, and deeply informed account of the global War on Terror, from its violent beginnings to the unstable world it has helped create today.\" -Martin Gallagher, PhDIdeal for readers of Malcolm Gladwell, Ben Rhodes, and contemporary geopolitical nonfiction, this is an essential examination of the unfinished legacy of 9\/11—and what comes next.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57502176870773,"sku":"9780888903860","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780888903860.jpg?v=1786780996"},{"product_id":"freedom-star-1","title":"Freedom Star","description":"A harrowing tale of one woman’s fight for survival, Freedom Star tells the deeply moving story of love, loss, and the fight against oppression. Set against the backdrop of the the CCP’s forced labour camps of Xinjiang– with wrenching depictions of the ongoing genocide sourced directly from survivor’s accounts– Dr. Svet Di-Nahum exposes the violence underlying the modern Chinese regime. More than a novel, Freedom Star represents the pinnacle of a career of scholarship and activism which uncovers a new wave of colonialism under the Bamboo Curtain.Bright, auspicious, and with a voracious taste for the works of Whitman, Dickinson \u0026amp; Burroughs, Shanghai Ivy Yang finds her quiet patriotism thrown  into disorder when she falls in love with Huang Fang – once a celebrated poet, now working as a janitor after twenty years in a prison camp for his participation in the Tiananmen Square protests. Huang introduces Ivy to a whole new world, one where freedom dares to cross the party line. When Huang is killed leading a peaceful protest through the city streets, Ivy is arrested and thrown into a farflung PLA concentration camp, fighting to survive day after day amid backbreaking labour and inhumane torture. When she catches the eye of Mo Gwen, the ruthless colonel in charge of the camp, the danger of Xinjiang only grows more personal, and she begins to dream of escape, her will buoyed only by the words of her favourite authors and the memory of Huang and his dream of freedom.Tracing a worldwide battle of oppression and dissent, tyranny and liberation, Dr. Svet Di-Nahum unveils a sprawling story of the great war of our time. Laureate of the 2022 Cervena Barva Dissident Award and a Ukrainian Panteleimon Kulish International Literary Prize winner for his work defending democracy in Crimea, Di-Nahum brings his surgical brand of fiction to the ongoing repression of freedoms and Uyghur genocides in China, exposing how Beijing’s global web of menace– from Taiwan to Russia– fuels a propaganda state threatening the entire Western world. A work of fiction based on events all too real, Freedom Star draws from a cruel reality often ignored by Western media, painting a deeply human story of how the suffering of one represents the future of all.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57502179361141,"sku":"9780888903938","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"red-horizon","title":"Forging the Future","description":"\u003cp\u003eEver since the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, it has harbored an ambition to lead the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the summit of the international system. In the Party’s preferred historical analysis, it alone is able to overcome historical injustices and return China to a position of preeminent power in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe country’s current leader, Xi Jinping, appears to believe that the PRC is within touching distance of achieving this ambition, which the Party calls “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Xi has set the target for realizing national rejuvenation as the middle of the twenty-first century, with certain milestones to be reached by 2027 and 2035.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXi’s beliefs are increasingly supported by hard evidence. Experts within the Party have for decades attempted to calculate the aggregate strength of the nation and compare it to that of other major powers. Measuring the country’s “comprehensive national power” in this way involves assessing progress on a variety of indices such as military strength, economic power, and global influence. Under Xi, material progress on these and other components of national power have become impossible to overlook.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eForging Order\u003c\/em\u003e[AH1] , editors Peter Mattis and Arran Hope offer a new understanding of what the PRC has become and where the Party is headed. Collating writing by a wealth of expert analysts and China watchers, they show how Beijing has reasserted strict control over the Party, reinserted it into active roles within public and private institutions, and undertaken dramatic reforms to mobilize the state in a struggle for national rejuvenation. Military might, industrial and technological innovation, and an ever-evolving social world all play a part in the country’s bid for dominance on the world stage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book traces how everything from One Belt One Road projects across, the multi-domain degradation of the status quo with Taiwan, and cutthroat competition over artificial intelligence and other crucial technologies of the future form a complex strategy both visible and invisible. It also unveils the networks through which the Party seeks to extend its influence beyond the PRC’s borders. Examining the Party’s overseas united front efforts to cultivate relationships, shape narratives, and buy acquiescence toward Beijing’s interests, it raises difficult questions about foreign influence and the resilience of open institutions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe PRC’s dramatic progress in just a few decades has presented a major challenge to democracies worldwide, particularly Canada, the United States and those in Europe. It is also undermining the institutions of the postwar international system. Beijing has been shaping an alternative (new) order more conducive to its interests. The West is only beginning to understand the scale of the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions and how far it has already advanced towards realising them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnderstanding how the Party conceives of its own power and position in the world is essential for recognizing the direction in which it is taking the PRC and, increasingly, impacting the rest of the world. \u003cem\u003eForging Order\u003c\/em\u003e provides the tools to approach such an understanding. With incisive prose and analytic rigor, it describes the challenge posed to democratic nations by an increasingly powerful authoritarian state and demonstrates the urgent need for democracies to work together to protect the institutions on which open societies depend.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e[AH1]Didn’t we agree on “Forging the Future”?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e[AH2]ditto\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57502180245877,"sku":"9780888903990","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780888903990.jpg?v=1786781000"},{"product_id":"musings-on-medicine","title":"Musings On Medicine","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe are told that health is a matter of personal responsibility. Eat this, not that. Move your body. Sleep more. Stress less. And it’s true, the science of lifestyle medicine shows that our choices can prevent, and even reverse, the common chronic diseases of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis encouraging advice ignores a deeper reality: our choices are not made in a vacuum. They are shaped by systems engineered to stimulate craving and drive overconsumption, and business models that profit from treating the predictable consequences, all reinforced by the cost of food, the quality of our air, our incomes, our working hours, and the policies made in city halls, legislatures, and boardrooms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver thirty years on the front lines of addiction medicine, Dr. Ann Crabtree developed a radically simple, evidence-based approach to restoring personal health, now made urgent by an environment increasingly engineered against our health.This book explores the tension and the synergy, between personal action and structural responsibility\u003cstrong\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e  It lays out how you can take control of your health and presents solutions for improving public health policy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57502181130613,"sku":"9780888904010","price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780888904010.jpg?v=1786781000"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-optimum-publishing-international.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}