How China's internal politics could derail its peaceful rise

Excellent, easy to read. Great intro to China ( )

I'm about halfway through with the book and it has proven to be quite an illuminating work. Maybe it's a bit repetitive, but interesting and not very difficult to read or to follow. That's an important thing, especially considering that university presses sometimes publish works that are illegible without a dictionary by your side. Anyway, the only thing about it is that the book is barely 3 years old, but things move so quickly in the world that it's already a bit behind. I wish this latest economic depression and topplings of regimes in several Arab countries had been taken into account too. But well, there's nothing you can do about that. And for those who wish to know more about how China functions, this is a must-read book. ( )

Susan Shirk was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for relations with China in the Clinton administration and she is now director of the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
In this extremely well informed book she reflects on her lifetimes' experience with Chinese affairs and explains why China is more of a "fragile" superpower than is immediately apparent to Western observers.
The basic problem is that Communist ideology doesn't convince the Chinese (or anyone else) any longer, so in fear for their own survival, the Chinese Communist leadership have fomented and appropriated a strident form on nationalism directed at the Japanese, Taiwanese and Americans,in that order.

She gives full credit to the economic reforms and openness initiated by Deng Xiaoping, quoting the World Bank in saying that since 1979 the reforms have lifted 400 million people out of poverty, which is a remarkable figure. The Chinese take pride in their achievement but her opinion is that a combination of pride and nationalism + a newly informed population thanks to the Internet, risks popular demands for military action that the Politbureau could not hold back (and remain in power) - in other words, they would become hostages of their their own nationalist creation.

The Chinese people also leave the Communist government alone while they provide the economic conditions for the growth to absorb the rural workforce as it migrates to the cities. A war would obviously break this link but she doesn't really consider the (more likely) disruption caused by an economic crisis.

As of 2010 the Chinese economy is overheating and could expect some economic instability, either from interior conditions or from the exterior ones resulting from the high level of integration of China into the world economy.

I feel that this is an important point that she doesn't explore sufficiently, but otherwise I'd easily give the book 5 stars. ( )

An examination of China's role in the world and the role that China ought to play.