The Coming China Wars: where they will be fought and how they can be won—BOOK REVIEW

Before you read this, I’m warning you, I hated this book.  I’ve rewritten this 4 or 5 times trying to make it “nice.”  You’ve been warned. (MONDAY 15/09/08 MORNING UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM)I’ve been accused of bashing China on this blog.  I don't agree with that title but I’m certainly no Panda hugger.  Regardless of what you call me I felt like I needed to take a bath when I finished reading this book.The author tells us in the introduction, that he wrote this because, as he says, "I can and I must."  Yet there are two other more obvious reasons why this book was written.  First to get your money, and second, to scared the pants off you for some unspecified Anti-Chinese agenda.  Both jobs are accomplished admirably.The book is the new China Bashers’ constitution.  Reading it you just know that every anti-China congressman and union leader in the US are going to be quoting this for the next decade.  I’m guessing that’s why it was written (and probably who paid for it too).The book is based on a number of unproven and/or untrue assumptions including, but not limited to these: The US can outspend China, there will be either a hot or cold war with China, China will always be an adversary, China can and will continue indefinitely to grow/spend/pollute like it has for the last 30 years, China can be contained by the US/EU and China cares about international public opinion more than domestic opinion.Basically it’s a collection of every single bad press clipping that has ever been published about China in the last 10 years.  And, admittedly, while some of the horror stories are true, some context in retelling the stories or even a superficial nod to objectivity would have been nice.  It wouldn’t have hurt to include some actual university/peer review quality research (since the author is a professor) or even a causal mention of alternative points of view.There isn’t a single source citation in the entire book and the many of the ideas and much of the background come from (admits the author) unverifiable internet sites and anti-china organizations.  Again, that doesn’t mean that the stories are not true; just exaggerated, out of context, agenda driven and written with more hype than a bad B-movie trailer.But even though it’s very poorly written, it’s a book that you just can’t put down—like a train wreck, you want to know what else could possibly be worse then the previous chapter.China has serious world-affecting issues in many areas, no doubt.  And many of these issues affect the US (and other countries) directly and will get certainly continue and some will even get worse.  Pollution, for example.  But without a solution for solving a single one of the problems presented, what’s the point of reprinting (ad nauseasium) the obvious?!This book does provide a service—it’s the balance to the rah rah China press that constitutes most books on business in China.  But it’s written to be more of a scare tactic than an investigation of or solution for major issues.  I’m all for raising awareness to issues like these and then proposing something to do about them. But this book doesn’t do that.The book’s conclusions, prefaced with this hypocritical gem: “no problem can be solved until it is clearly understood,” seem to just have been added on as an after thought.  Some of his conclusions/solutions into individuals and countries wining a war with China are:

*Be a conscious consumer.*Write your congress person.*Buy Made in the USA products (but don’t be protectionist)*Buy more copies of this book and donate them to friends and libraries.

I guess that thoughtful consumerism and letters to senators will eventually cripple one of the largest economies/markets/populations the world has ever seen.  In addition to that individual formula for success, our governments should:

*Encourage free trade by forcing trade partners to abide by WTO legislation*Encourage IP protections (yea, nobody’s trying to do that now)*Add currency manipulation to the list of unfair trade practices*Adopt a zero tolerance policy for counterfeiting and pirating and tighten the boarders (no mention about eliminating the #1 market for illegal goods in the world—the US)*End the blood for oil politics of China (yea, that’ll be easy, let me just finish up with Iraq here first).*Counter Chinese imperialism with our own “Charm Offensive.”  Quick, name one other country in the history of the world with the “soft” power/influence of the current US (culture)?*Enforce environmental standards in China via trade agreements and contracts*Resolve the Taiwan issue  (No solutions, suggestions or any ideas on how.  Just do it.)*Don’t get the US military involved in any “unnecessary conflicts.”  (No shit?!  Really?)

There are no workable scenarios, no processes or “how to” steps to get any of these things accomplished, no analysis of current policy or positions to oppose/support, no ideas whatsoever how to get anything done.This book is a collection of the worst news stories that the author could find followed by a list of ideas that was most likely generated on the blackboard at the end of a college IR class.Don’t waste your time or money.________________________________Monday Morning UPDATE-20 good books on China.Since I don’t want to be just critical and leave you with nothing of value (other than the warning not to buy The Coming China Wars), I figured I’d better give you a list of 21 China books that I liked and recomend.1.    Jonathan Spence’s The Search for Modern China. (History)2.    Mayfair Mei-hui Yang’s Gifts, Favors, & Banquets, The Art of Social Relationships in China. (Anthropology)3.    Susan Shirk’s China: Fragile Superpower. (Politics)4.    James Mann’s The China Fantasy. (Politics)5.    Scott Seligman’s Chinese Business Etiquette. (Business)6.    Donald Sull’s Made in China (Business)7.    Peter Hessler’s River Town and Oracle Bones. (China Stories)8.    Tim Clissold’s Mr. China (Business)9.    Will Hutton’s The Writing on the Wall, China and the West in the 21st Century (Politics).10.    Bergsten et al’s China, The Balance Sheet (Business)11.    John Pomfret’s Chinese Lessons (China Stories)12.    Ross Terill’s The New Chinese Empire and what it means for the US. (Politics)13.    Pierre Xiao Lu’s Elite China (Business)14.    Julia Lovell’s The Great Wall, China Against the World (History/Politics)15.    James McGregor’s One Billion Customers (Business)16.    Ted Fishman’s China Inc. (Business/Politics)17.    Clyde Presowitz’s Three Billion New Capitalists (Business/Politics)18.    Ming-Jer Chen’s Inside Chinese Business (Business)19.    James Lilley’s China Hands (China Stories)20.    Chen and Wu’s Will the Boat Sink the Water (Social Issues)And 10 more books you can probably just as well skip:1.    Navarro’s The Coming China Wars2.    Fernandez’s China CEO3.    Engardio’s Chindia4.    Chee and West’s Myths about Doing Business in China5.    Ross’s Fast Boat to China6.    Sun’s The Long March7.    Menzies’s 14218.    Chang’s Ma0, the unknown story9.    HBR’s Doing Business in China10.     Kynge’s China Shakes the World