How will China attempt to dominate 21st century geopolitics: through charm or aggression? Xi Jinping’s recent exhortation to “create a credible, lovable and respectable image of China” suggests that the ‘Wolf Warrior’ model of bellicose diplomacy may be falling out of favor. Yet rising nationalism and revanchist fervor are likely to hold a strong influence over China’s foreign relations for a while yet, as our top pick this month suggests.
On the shortlist are a spate of new books that bring nuance to other big issues: How has the Communist Party kept power for so long? Is an intra-Party coup possible? Is China manipulating anti-trust law? And what is China’s overall strategy?
Meanwhile, if China is playing the long game, then it surely doesn’t hurt to revisit the cultural history of its most successful strategy game: mahjong. The tiles are on the table, but the prize is still up for grabs.
The One to Read
China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy by Peter Martin
In 2017, a new term — borrowed from a nationalistic action movie sequel — captured the newfound confidence of China’s public defenders in the Xi era: “wolf warriors.” It especially applied to a new generation of diplomats, whose pugilistic rhetoric was hard to ignore. In this study, longtime China watcher Peter Martin gives us much-needed context to the rise of wolf warrior diplomacy, and explains how it is not so much a new phenomenon as a fresh iteration of patterns often seen in the way China has conducted foreign affairs under the CCP. The book is framed historically, moving from how Zhou Enlai founded the PRC’s diplomatic corps, through the Cultural Revolution and reform era, all the way up to 2020. Extra value comes from Martin’s hard slog in reading (in Chinese) the memoirs of over a hundred Chinese diplomats for his research. In the process, he argues that just like those first diplomats in 1949, the wolf warriors are ultimately “profoundly insecure about their country’s place in the world.”
June 10, 2021 | Oxford University Press (June 10). $27.95. | Buy
The Shortlist
The Party and the People: Chinese Politics in the 21st Century by Bruce Dickson
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) approaches its hundredth anniversary, and the People’s Republic outstrips the longevity of the USSR, there is a simple yet crucial question to ask: what has enabled the Party to retain control so successfully? In this approachable and clear work, Dickson expounds his thesis that the magic formula is a combination of repression (of political dissidence and existential threats) and responsiveness (to public concerns and local unrest). Featuring deep dives into leadership legitimacy, civil society, political protests, religion and nationalism, he elucidates the evolving relationship between state and citizen, as well as exploring how the balance has shifted (to the repressive side) under Xi Jinping.
May 25, 2021 | Princeton University Press. $29.95. | Buy
China’s Grand Strategy: A Roadmap to Global Power? by David B. H. Denoon
While a cottage industry of tea-leaf readers has emerged to predict China’s actions, this collection of essays provides a sager alternative: broad-view takes from experts in their field on China’s strategy broken down into different spheres of activity. Contributions include articles on China’s military strategy (as shaped by new technology), its new economic and foreign policy strategies, as well as its regional plans, from north and southeast Asia to Eurasia, the Middle East and America. The writing is clear throughout and avoids veering into alarmism, while offering blow-by-blow contexts and key take-aways — such as how arms control has fallen out of fashion among Chinese military planners.
June 15, 2021 | NYU Press. $38 (Paperback). | Buy
China Coup: The Great Leap to Freedom by Roger Garside
There was a time when books predicting the collapse of the CCP and China’s transition to democracy were a dime a dozen. Not so much under the Xi administration, with the enduring rise of communist China now more the consensus among analysts. It is refreshing, then, to read a book that argues explicitly for the unfashionable scenario of an internal putsch unseating Xi Jinping and bringing about democratic change in the near future. Garside — a British former diplomat posted to China during and immediately after the Mao years — identifies an over-confidence in Xi’s rule, looming economic disaster and a more assertive America as key risk factors.
May 4, 2021 | University of California Press. $23.95. | Buy
Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation by Angela Huyue Zhang
As the U.S. government deepens restrictions on Chinese big tech firms and proposes economic plans of its own to rival China’s growth, it is more essential than ever to understand how Chinese regulation fits into the Sino-U.S. tech war. In this important (though at times impenetrable) work, law academic Zhang examines how anti-trust laws are weaponized by Beijing to boost competitiveness and skirt sanctions. Blending political and economic analysis into legal theory, she brings greater transparency to the opaque relationship between China’s state legislature and private companies, shedding light also on the battle between economic nationalism and globalization that rages inside China as much as it does elsewhere.
May 11, 2021 | Oxford University Press. $39.95. | Buy
Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture by Annelise Heinz
Anyone who has seen an elderly quartet lost in the click-clack of mahjong tiles will know that it is not just a game, but a battlefield. This cultural history of the game focuses on how it crossed the Pacific to be played among a variety of different communities, from the Chinese American diaspora to Jewish American suburban moms. Following mahjong’s waves of popularity in Hollywood and high society as well as the middle class (and even Japanese-Americans in wartime camps), Heinz gives us an account that is both entertaining and informative, including old photographs and adverts that illustrate how important the game has been for modern America as well as old China.
May 3, 2021 | Oxford University Press. $34.95. | Buy
In Case You Missed It
Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China’s Countryside by Xiaowei Wang
This book provides a different angle to the China tech story, usually cast as urban and often dystopian: how technology is transforming agricultural practice in rural China. Writer Xiaowei Wang reports from the field with lively first-person prose and a keen eye. The material includes free-range chicken farms using blockchain technology to fix food safety and supply chain issues; farmers harnessing AI to monitor the health of hybrid-bred pigs; drones that spray pesticide and fertilizer; as well as GMO crops and new delivery apps. Throughout, she explores how the intersection of globalization and technology has changed the character of China’s countryside, the so-called ‘good earth’ that is now becoming digitalized.
Oct 13, 2020 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $14.47 | Buy
Alec Ash is the books editor for The Wire. He is the author of Wish Lanterns. His work has also appeared in The Economist, BBC, SupChina, and Foreign Policy. @alecash
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