Haunted By Chaos China S Grand Strategy From Mao Zedong To Xi Jinping

Before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, China lay broken and fragmented. Today it is a force on the global stage, and yet its leaders have continued to be haunted by the past. Drawing on an array of sources, Sulmaan Wasif Khan chronicles the grand strategies that have sought not only to protect China from aggression but also to ensure it would never again experience the powerlessness of the late Qing and Republican eras. The dramatic variations in China’s modern history have obscured the commonality of purpose that binds the country’s leaders. Analyzing the calculus behind their decision making, Khan explores how they wove diplomatic, military, and economic power together to keep a fragile country safe in a world they saw as hostile. Dangerous and shrewd, Mao Zedong made China whole and succeeded in keeping it so, while the caustic, impatient Deng Xiaoping dragged China into the modern world. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao served as cautious custodians of the Deng legacy, but the powerful and deeply insecure Xi Jinping has shown an assertiveness that has raised both fear and hope across the globe. For all their considerable costs, China’s grand strategies have been largely successful. But the country faces great challenges today. Its population is aging, its government is undermined by corruption, its neighbors are arming out of concern over its growing power, and environmental degradation threatens catastrophe. A question Haunted by Chaos raises is whether China’s time-tested approach can respond to the looming threats of the twenty-first century.

An American Interest Book of the Year “Readers will not find a shrewder analysis as to why the Chinese act as they do.” —Robert D. Kaplan “An outstanding contribution to our understanding of that most urgent of contemporary geopolitical questions: what does China want?” —Rana Mitter Before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, China lay broken and fragmented. Today it dominates the global stage, and yet its leaders have continued to be haunted by the past. Analyzing the calculus behind decision making at the highest levels, Sulmaan Wasif Khan explores how China’s leaders have harnessed diplomatic, military, and economic power to keep a fragile country safe in a hostile world. At once shrewd and dangerous, Mao Zedong made China whole and succeeded in keeping it so while the caustic Deng Xiaoping dragged China into the modern world. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao were cautious custodians of Deng’s legacy, but Xi Jinping has shown a mounting assertiveness that has raised concern across the globe. China’s grand strategies, while costly, have been largely successful. But will this time-tested approach be enough to tackle the looming threats of our age? “Written with verve and insight, this will become the go-to book for anyone interested in the foundations of China’s grand strategy under Communist rule.” —Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War “Khan’s brilliant analysis will help policymakers understand the critical rise of China...Crucial if we are to avoid conflict with this emerging superpower.” —Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO “Khan argues that since before the People’s Republic of China’s founding, Chinese rulers have held remarkably consistent objectives, even as their definition of security has expanded.” —Mira Rapp-Hooper, War on the Rocks

Sulmaan Khan examines the concerns that have shaped China's decision-making on the world stage. He compares the grand strategies of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping, analyzing what goals they had for China, their plans for achieving them, and how well their strategies worked. Khan argues that from Mao to Xi there has been a consistent definition of national goals and a harnessing of military, diplomatic, and economic means to pursue those aims. Khan is not suggesting there was a well-crafted master plan from the beginning of the People's Republic of China, but he finds a common purpose and vision for China across these leaders: they all saw China as a brittle entity in a world that was fundamentally dangerous. Their objective was not only to protect China in such a world, but to ensure that it never again felt as powerless as it had in the late Qing and early Republic era. Ranging from the Tibetan plateau to the South China Sea, from China's time as a global pariah to bastion of the world economy, this is the first comprehensive account of the grand strategies of the People's Republic of China. For all their considerable costs, these strategies have, for the most part, been successful. But the very forces that made China whole and strong now risk tearing it back apart. Khan concludes with the great challenges facing Chinese strategists today. The population is aging, and the costs of global warming and environmental change could prove catastrophic. Life on a day-to-day basis is richer, but more precarious. Economic influence might be spreading, but air quality is bad and people cannot trust food grown on poisoned land. Going forward, China's leaders will seek solutions to such long-term problems that could affect national security.--

This study is a radical and controversial analysis of the life and works of Rewi Alley utilizing both Chinese materials and previously unpublished materials from western sources. Rather than a biography as such, it is a revisionist history, re-examining what we know and understand about one of the most famous, or indeed infamous, foreigners in modern China: Rewi Alley, who arrived in China in 1927 from New Zealand and lived there for the rest of his life. Alley was regarded as a great humanitarian and internationalist. Later he became an outspoken 'foreign friend' of the Chinese regime and prolific propagandist on the new China. This book examines the myth and reality of his life, using them to explore the role of foreigners in China's diplomatic relations and their sensitive place in China after 1949, laying bare the important role of China's 'foreign friends' in Chinese foreign policy.

Offers a different perspective on Mao Zedong, the major architect of the Chinese Revolution and leader of the People's Republic of China until his death in 1976. Utilizing a number of documents written by Mao, here, the author 'rethinks' Mao by subjecting a number his controversial themes to fresh scrutiny.

Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer -- and one of only two Westerners permitted to enroll at Beijing University -- her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock and roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and married the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China. Red China Blues begins as Wong's startling -- and ironic -- memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism that began to sour as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism and led to her eventual repatriation to the West. Returning to China in the late eighties as a journalist, she covered both the brutal Tiananmen Square crackdown and the tumultuous era of capitalist reforms under Deng Xiaoping. In a wry, absorbing, and often surreal narrative, she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the "worker's paradise." And through the stories of the people -- an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises -- Wong creates an extraordinary portrait of the world's most populous nation. In setting out to show readers in the Western world what life is like in China, and why we should care, Wong reacquaints herself with the old friends -- and enemies -- of her radical past, and comes to terms with the legacies of her ancestral homeland.

The surprise Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979 shocked the international community. The two communist nations had seemed firm political and cultural allies, but the twenty-nine-day border war imposed heavy casualties, ruined urban and agricultural infrastructure, leveled three Vietnamese cities, and catalyzed a decadelong conflict. In this groundbreaking book, Xiaoming Zhang traces the roots of the conflict to the historic relationship between the peoples of China and Vietnam, the ongoing Sino-Soviet dispute, and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's desire to modernize his country. Deng's perceptions of the Soviet Union, combined with his plans for economic and military reform, shaped China's strategic vision. Drawing on newly declassified Chinese documents and memoirs by senior military and civilian figures, Zhang takes readers into the heart of Beijing's decision-making process and illustrates the war's importance for understanding the modern Chinese military, as well as China's role in the Asian-Pacific world today.