The Coming Conflict with China

Rating:
Summary: It worthes not even one star
Review: Actually the book itself is not "stupid." That argument is too subjective for this critic. However, I would like to say that the authors of this book came to no concrete conclusions. And any quasi conclusions they derived were founded on generalizations and speculation. I would also like to note that there facts and examples are sounds yet they apply in a lose way that anyone with a high school degree can come to the same conclusions they did. In short, any one with a paranoid mind and some of the facts could have written this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Study of this topic!
Review: Contrary to what many people here have stated, this is an excellent study of Sino-American Relations. This book uses information from official Chinese sources, history, and other sources to weave a tight and well reasoned thesis about China and China's relation to America. This is well worth reading and buying.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Study of this topic!
Review: Contrary to what many people here have stated, this is an excellent study of Sino-American Relations. This book uses information from official Chinese sources, history, and other sources to weave a tight and well reasoned thesis about China and China's relation to America. This is well worth reading and buying.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing read.
Review: I tried to keep an open-minded perspective on the arguments made in this book but they're just outrageous. Despite the military flexing along the Taiwan Straits in 1996 (from where most of the arguments and extrapolations in this book are drawn) and the recent verbal jousts during the Presidential elections where the upsart and pro-independence DPP forged ahead, China remains to be a superpower to be reckoned and does what any other superpower would do to edge favorably. What the writers here have amassed is far-fetched scenarios and conclusions that makes it a good science fiction if it weren't terrestial based.

Rating:
Summary: An Alarmist View of Sino-American Relations
Review: I was assigned this book for a class in East Asian-World Politics, so I read it thoroughly and was thoroughly disappointed. The assumptions that this book is based on are fallacious and misguided, and the authors seem to have no understanding of either Chinese political culture or the nature of international relations. To begin with, the book spends most of its time highlighting and exaggerating sources of tension between the two countries, and seems to assume that every tension between two states will inevitably lead to full-scale war. This assumption is sadly mistaken. In fact, the United States and Canada have outstanding disagreements on a number of issues, yet experience close relations and have the longest unguarded border in the world. The book relies mostly on provacative statements made by members of the Chinese Communist Party to support its thesis. It ignores the fact that it is common practice in Chinese politics to speak loudly and negatively about whomever China currently disagrees with. Just because a member of the National People's Congress says war with the United States is inevitable over human rights doesn't mean it will happen. Have the authors ever heard Jesse Helms (or many other senators, for that matter) speak? Note their reluctance to use force to settle the Taiwan issue. The entire book comes off as a heavily-biased college paper on US-Chinese relations. The fact that they use virtually no primary-source material or Chinese-language material not already translated adds to this perception. It appears that the authors decided the hypothesis of the book beforehand, and simply searched for information to support their theory. As flawed and biased a book as I have come across in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Huntington's children on the march
Review: Not at all informative, this book seems to have taken its cue from Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" theory: the authors construct a model for the future U.S.-China confrontation that they almost seem to hope will come about. Although nestled in scholarly language and presented as the views of experts on China, most of the argument seems based more on stereotypes and American paranoia than any actual fact. Also annoying is the authors' assumption of the general benignity of U.S. policy in Asia; it never occurs to them to question the designs of U.S. policy-makers and businesses in the region...

Rating:
Summary: Western Xenophobe's Sleight of Hand
Review: The central premise of Richard Bernstein and Ross Munro's "The Coming Conflict With China" is that China's rise to power necessarily puts it on a collision course with the United States. Needless to say, there is absolutely no evidence that this premise is true. Three developments that have occurred during the year since the book's publication demonstrate its inaccuracy. First, relations between the U.S. and China have warmed considerably, and indications are that this trend will continue. Second, since its reunification with China, Hong Kong has not experienced the grim "crackdown on human rights" that Bernstein and Munro so confidently predict. And third, relations between China and Taiwan are slowly but surely thawing, and will likely lead to resumed negotiations before the end of the year, despite the authors' claim that war between China and Taiwan is fairly likely. Furthermore, Bernstein and Munro's argument is patchy and unconvincing, at best. For example, one of their main theses is that Beijing has officially identified the U.S. as China's main enemy; in order to prove this, the authors provide a list of anti-American quotations from various Chinese officials, generals, and intellectuals. However, this proves only that there are anti-American voices in China (is this a surprise?), NOT that this is Beijing's official policy. It would be just as easy to compile a list of anti-China quotations from American sources, but this would prove nothing. Amusingly, Bernstein and Munro assume with unusual arrogance and Eurocentric conceit that American hegemony in Asia is the only natural and viable option for world order. Apparently, it has never occurred to the authors that it might actually make more sense for China to be the dominant influence of Asia than for the U.S. to be so. But the worst aspect of "The Coming Conflict With China" is its repetitiveness. Chapter after chapter, the authors restate their thesis, adding semi-relevant tidbits of data, as though each reprise contributes to the argument's validity. The Taiwan Strait incident of 1996 is mentioned at least a dozen times, always with the same ominous tone of foreboding signficance. Nevertheless, the book's arguments finally fall apart; the authors are unable to build a solid framework of concepts on given data. Rather, they attempt to alarm and distract and provoke the reader until their arguments take root. It's an interesting technique executed with moderate competence, but for people who are acquainted with the realities of the situation, it just doesn't work.

Rating:
Summary: Competent, short, but timely treatment of a difficult topic
Review: This is not the most scholarly book you will ever read. Let that be said right away. Also, as has been mentioned before, this book takes all of its cues from Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." However, for any devotees of Huntington's theories (of which I am one) this is an interesting investigation of the one area of the world where the U.S. has the greatest potential for conflict in the near future.

Bernstein and Munro write each chapter about what they feel is a potentially important issue concerning U.S.-China relations. However the best, most interesting ones are those regarding Taiwan and the "New China Lobby." Most of you have probabaly never heard of the New China Lobby before and they are undoubtedly happy to hear that. The New China Lobby is in effect an organization of American and Chinese businesses which use their money and power to influence political decisions in the United States and to a much lesser extent in China. The number of despicable actions which have been instigated by this lobby is staggering and you will inevitably shake your head in disgust as you read how spineless many of our politicians are, and how ruthless businesses in both countries are. Many of the actions taken by the U.S. government were done in order to protect American business in China, the best example given by the authors is in regards to the Boeing/Airbus struggle for the Chinese market. Yet there are numerous others which simply smack of greed. If you are interested in reading more evidence of how big business has hijacked American politics the New China Lobby chapter of this book will be of particular interest.

The rest of the book is well informed and clearly written. It does not, as other reviewers have implied, treat the Chinese strictly in a stereotypically racist manner. What it does do is attempt to talk about the issues rather than around them. It is also worth mentioning that the chapter on Taiwan is written mostly in a narrative format detailing a possible sequence of events which could lead to American involvement in a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. Lastly, lest you fear that this book is all doom and gloom... fear not. Bernstein and Munro have a mostly positive outlook for the future and sincerely believe that it is more likely we will continue on without any armed conflict, they merely point out the circumstances that might lead to it.

Rating:
Summary: Competent, short, but timely treatment of a difficult topic
Review: This is not the most scholarly book you will ever read. Let that be said right away. Also, as has been mentioned before, this book takes all of its cues from Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." However, for any devotees of Huntington's theories (of which I am one) this is an interesting investigation of the one area of the world where the U.S. has the greatest potential for conflict in the near future.

Bernstein and Munro write each chapter about what they feel is a potentially important issue concerning U.S.-China relations. However the best, most interesting ones are those regarding Taiwan and the "New China Lobby." Most of you have probabaly never heard of the New China Lobby before and they are undoubtedly happy to hear that. The New China Lobby is in effect an organization of American and Chinese businesses which use their money and power to influence political decisions in the United States and to a much lesser extent in China. The number of despicable actions which have been instigated by this lobby is staggering and you will inevitably shake your head in disgust as you read how spineless many of our politicians are, and how ruthless businesses in both countries are. Many of the actions taken by the U.S. government were done in order to protect American business in China, the best example given by the authors is in regards to the Boeing/Airbus struggle for the Chinese market. Yet there are numerous others which simply smack of greed. If you are interested in reading more evidence of how big business has hijacked American politics the New China Lobby chapter of this book will be of particular interest.

The rest of the book is well informed and clearly written. It does not, as other reviewers have implied, treat the Chinese strictly in a stereotypically racist manner. What it does do is attempt to talk about the issues rather than around them. It is also worth mentioning that the chapter on Taiwan is written mostly in a narrative format detailing a possible sequence of events which could lead to American involvement in a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. Lastly, lest you fear that this book is all doom and gloom... fear not. Bernstein and Munro have a mostly positive outlook for the future and sincerely believe that it is more likely we will continue on without any armed conflict, they merely point out the circumstances that might lead to it.