Product Description
With its expanding economy and formidable military growth, China is positioning itself to challenge the United States as the greatest international power on the world stage. The Rise of China is a collection of essays about the nature of that challenge and what the U.S. and its allies might do in the areas of foreign and defense affairs to meet it. Contributing authors include Dan Blumenthal, Ellen Bork, Nicholas Eberstadt, Robert Kagan and more.
The Rise of China: Essays on the Future Competition
My major interests in China involve the sustainability of the worldwide global economic system. The questions I wanted answered by this book were: “Can China continue to grow at the rate it has?”; “What internal issues such as pollution and population growth would interfere with or impede China’s progress, and can they be effectively addressed?”; “Why does China continue to lend large sums to the West in support of potentially disastrous economic policies, and is there a trigger which would cause them to stop?”; “How healthy is Chinese society and it’s economy?”; “How do the Chinese people perceive the U.S.?”
Except for the last essay which has some demographic information, none of my questions were answered with any satisfaction. The book is focused mainly on geopolitical posturing and how the U.S. should position itself relative to a strengthening regional Chinese military presence. It is reminiscent of Cold War thinking.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book is a compilation of essays concerning China. They’re a mixture of foreign policy, history, and economics. My two favorites were the ones by Robert Kagan and Nicholas Eberstadt. Frankly, I’m not a foreign policy guy so practically the entire book was educational for me. I suppose if you’re on top of the current relations between the US and the PRC then its worth may not be as pronounced. The Rise of China elucidates a great many truths about what the future holds for us with our main rival on this earth–a future which is indefinite. Certainly, this is a cautionary tale.
Rating: 5 / 5