Overreach, Susan L. Shirk
Overreach, Susan L. Shirk
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Overreach
How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise

Author: Susan L. Shirk

Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt

Unabridged: 15 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/09/2023


Synopsis

For three decades after Mao's death in 1976, China's leaders adopted a restrained approach to foreign policy. To facilitate the country's inexorable economic ascendance, and to prevent a backlash, they reassured the outside world of China's peaceful intentions.

Then, as Susan Shirk shows, something changed. China went from fragile superpower to global heavyweight. Combining her decades of research and experience, Shirk, one of the world's most respected experts on Chinese politics, argues that we are now fully embroiled in a new cold war.

As she shows, the shift toward confrontation began in the mid-2000s under the mild-mannered Hu Jintao. When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he capitalized on widespread official corruption and open splits in the leadership to make the case for more concentrated power at the top. Those who implement Xi's directives compete to outdo one another, provoking an even greater global backlash and stoking jingoism within China on a scale not seen since the Cultural Revolution.

Here is a devastatingly lucid portrait of China today. Understanding the domestic roots of China's actions will enable us to avoid the mistakes that could lead to war.

About Susan L. Shirk

Susan L. Shirk is director of the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and professor at UC-San Diego's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. A leading authority on China, she has has written numerous books and articles on this subject, including pieces that have appeared in Washington Post, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jason on November 29, 2024

In "Overreach," Susan Shirk presents a compelling analysis of China's departure from Deng Xiaoping's strategy of strategic prudence and economic prioritization toward an increasingly assertive stance on political, ideological, and foreign affairs. This shift, Shirk argues, has resulted in slower eco......more

Goodreads review by CK on November 26, 2022

Very precise and insightful analysis of CCP's political development from Mao to Xi. As what Susan pointed out, most people thought the root cause of CCP's overreach was the financial tsunami in 2008 but after reading this book, I'm convinced that it could be traced earlier, to Hu's collective leader......more

Goodreads review by Adrian on March 28, 2023

An excellent account of a phenomena I have been observing since 2009, but has reached a crescendo of sorts in recent years. The book confirms what I myself have been saying, that China's backsliding into more authoritarian control methods, and more aggressive nationalist posturing globally began und......more

Goodreads review by Jackson on January 05, 2023

Exceptionally informative but very repetitive. Shirk lays out the domestic and international consequences of collective leadership under Hu Jintao and makes a compelling case for how these conditions influenced Xi Jinping's policy decisions. Shirk explains the unique domestic political mechanisms and......more

Goodreads review by John on December 27, 2022

An excellent analysis of events in the past few decades surrounding China's pivot to more assertive domestic and foreign policies. The book provides evidence that, contrary to the views of some other analysts, the derailment of China's peaceful rise began before Xi Jinping took office, starting unde......more