Professor Susan Shirk's Book Reviewed
China: Fragile Superpower reviewed on KWR Advisor
11/01/2007
Dale Smith,
KWR International
To outsiders, China's government long appeared to be monolithic, strong, and unassailable. This impression, fostered by the Chinese government itself, was mostly true in the Mao and Deng eras. An international observer would be making a significant mistake to assume this today. Especially after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, China's Communist Party (which controls government at all levels) suffers from a lack of legitimacy and fears its own people. This weakness and insecurity at the highest levels of the Party translates in pressure to act belligerently to "foreign provocations" related to Japan, Taiwan, and the United States, and feeds back upon itself, as Japan and the U.S. officials and citizens react negatively to bellicose actions and statements.
Susan Shirk's book is an interesting counterpoint to Richard Bush and Michael O'Hanlon's recent book A War like No Other: the Truth about China's Challenge to America. Shirk, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration, has written a book that covers much wider territory than the Bush and O'Hanlon book's focus on the political unification of Taiwan with the mainland government and potential military conflict between China and the U.S.
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