Book Review-What Does China Think, by Mark Leonard

I have to say the introduction of this book scared me.  Mr. Leonard prefaces his writing by admitting that he knew so little about China that he hoped a trip or two could help him “learn the basics” and then allow him to go home.  But maybe the lack of info on China is what made the book readable.  It’s written from a perspective of “this is what I think that leaders are thinking” with no preconceived notions of what’s already by known Sinophiles.The book is short, and reflects a number of different strains of thought competing for supremacy within the bureaucracy.  Hence the title is misleading as it does not answer it’s own question—what does China think?  It does advance the theories of a couple of prominent scholars in a couple of general issues—but leaves us wondering about a number of things including who’s listening, what do the masses think, are any of these opinions shared (en masse) by groups such as the new rising middle class, and how much of the thoughts presented are purely Chinese in origin and how much is Leonard’s own amalgamation of collected research?The book is quite a good introduction to Chinese political thought.  Namely it reviews  (and reinforces) the idea that “China feels it’s due superpower status;” it confirms that China is only recently learning to both play by the international rules and that China is consciously trying to change the rules (as do all powers).  In this sense it’s not unlike books that I read 10+ years ago as an undergrad studying Chinese International Relations—which is where I think this book may be of value, in a undergrad class.While it is a good review, the book also glosses over the problems of China’s international influence and consciously amoral stand on international relations with rogue nations.  Maybe this is because the people Leonard spoke with don’t think that China has a problem; but surely all the intellectuals he spoke with don’t think the recent changes in policy toward Dufar, Burma and North Korea are all based on (miraculously) coincidental changes in China’s immediate economic advantages.  Yet, Leonard presents the shift in position on sticky issues as a rather conscious recognition of the need to compromise rather than an acceptance of pressure from the international PR disasters that these events indeed have been.The best part of the book, I thought, was the contrast between different schools of thought and the description of how that debate ultimately results in a relatively unified national direction.  Recently a lot of attention has been give to the idea that China is not monolithic in its power apparatus.  I couldn’t disagree more.  While there are most definitely cliques and ideologies within the Party that differ and a wide distribution of power at local and provincial levels that quite actively revolt against policies made from above there is no international face for China other than CCP and the national level leaders.I also found it difficult to separate Mr. Leonard’s own analysis from his presentation of “what China itself thinks” in his conclusions.  Some of the analysis is certainly not Chinese in origin and so I’m left wondering, again, whose thoughts are these, really?At 140+ pages it’s a nice primer for Chinese IR.  A nice road-trip book.  But it certainly needs to be read in context—and in my opinion that context needs to be both the thoughts of the other 1.3 billion people within China (whom are mentioned only in passing) and what the rest of the world will be saying and doing about China’s ideas.