This free issue of the newsletter is an excerpt from Rush Doshi’s new book “The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order”, provided by Oxford University Press.
That the author speaks of yet another "existential threat," this one dating back to the Qing Dynasty, "gives me the shivers," to borrow from "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I trust that someone out there is doing a scholarly examination of the use and abuse of this hackneyed term.
Jumping to the end of the introduction, "He closed his answer with a key insight: “This reawakened sense of destiny is an overpowering force. . . . China wants to be China and accepted as such, not as an honorary member of the West.” China might want to “share this century” with the United States, perhaps as “co-equals,” he noted, but certainly not as subordinates." My question is: why is China doing all it seemingly can do not (italicized "not") to be accepted as China, unless, of course, we are speaking of acceptance via extorition?
In between, as with the difference between climate change and global warming, I would like to know how the author defines "superpower." I ask because by many measures China remains a developing country, and may not ever become a fully developed one. It has its shiny objects and developed coastal areas, but such things do not a developed country make, much less a superpower. If superpower means little more than being able to rattle sabers, then, yes, China is a superpower, but this is, in my mind, a very attenuated definition of the word.
Still, this looks to be a volume worth reading. I hope "Land of Big Numbers" is on the reading list!
That the author speaks of yet another "existential threat," this one dating back to the Qing Dynasty, "gives me the shivers," to borrow from "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I trust that someone out there is doing a scholarly examination of the use and abuse of this hackneyed term.
Jumping to the end of the introduction, "He closed his answer with a key insight: “This reawakened sense of destiny is an overpowering force. . . . China wants to be China and accepted as such, not as an honorary member of the West.” China might want to “share this century” with the United States, perhaps as “co-equals,” he noted, but certainly not as subordinates." My question is: why is China doing all it seemingly can do not (italicized "not") to be accepted as China, unless, of course, we are speaking of acceptance via extorition?
In between, as with the difference between climate change and global warming, I would like to know how the author defines "superpower." I ask because by many measures China remains a developing country, and may not ever become a fully developed one. It has its shiny objects and developed coastal areas, but such things do not a developed country make, much less a superpower. If superpower means little more than being able to rattle sabers, then, yes, China is a superpower, but this is, in my mind, a very attenuated definition of the word.
Still, this looks to be a volume worth reading. I hope "Land of Big Numbers" is on the reading list!