Storyline
At the very heart of Chung Kuo is the ‘War of Two Directions’ — a struggle for the destiny of Mankind and the clash of two different ideologies. For the planet's hereditary rulers, the T'angs, the goal is stability and security, at the expense of individual freedoms if necessary, while a commercially-orientated faction desires change and the uncharted challenge of the new — even though loosening constraints on a over-populated planet could be lethal. Political tensions between the two factions lead assassination, biological and nano-technological terrorism, and ultimately to war and the outright destruction of whole cities.
The story is told through the eyes of a wide variety of characters from all levels of society: Triad bosses and assassins, emperors and artists, courtesans and soldiers, scientists and thieves, terrorists and princes. By the end of the series the dramatis personae total several hundred characters — most of them dead by that point in the storyline.
Read more about this topic: Chung Kuo (novel Series)