China: Fragile Superpower

Book Review

China Fragile Superpower

“China: Fragile Superpower”, by Susan Shirk is an insider’s look into China. The book’s ISBN number is 978-19-537319-6 for the paperback version. It was published in New York by Oxford University Press. The title of this book is very fitting and describes the country very well. Susan Shirk discussed the internal and external factors that make up China. She goes into detail about China’s insecurities and weaknesses and their relationships with other countries especially Japan, America and Taiwan. She is able to bring a very knowledgeable and fresh perspective to the subject because she has worked closely with some of China’s leaders in the past and knows the ins and outs of what makes China who it is and what makes it tick. Although there is a lot of information packed into this book, it can be a little hard to retain all the facts, figures, and antidotes that Shirk presents.  This book covers a large array of subjects; each one could probably fill a book on its own. This is a great book for anyone that has to deal with China because it gives information about China’s history and their perspective. The intended audience is the American politician or business person, interested in knowing more about China. However this book contains essential information, relevant to all Americans, because of our important relationship with China currently and in the future.

China: Fragile

Shirk describes China as “fragile”, when she does this she is mainly talking about China’s leaders and its government.  Domestic issues, not foreign ones, are the biggest threats to China’s government. China’s leaders are extremely insecure because of the way their government is set up. You would think that since they are not voted in, they would be more secure with their position. However, that is not the case; the leaders are promoted within the party and rely completely on having the right connections and making the right moves. It is very competitive even though it is a one-party rule. The party is even more insecure after the incidents surrounding Tiananmen Square. After this event, the government realized the power of the people. The people have the power to band together and now that they have tasted what freedom of press and freedom of speech is, they want it even more, or at least that is what the government thinks.

Not only are the government leaders insecure about the common people turning on them, they are worried about other government leaders turning on them. It would only take a few people in power to overthrow an official. For this reason, China’s leaders do not always act in the best interest of their country.  A lot of time, their reasoning stems from their concern for themselves and their power. The government is structured in a way that only a few people control the entire country; however, these people have the power to overthrow other leaders if they don’t agree with their policies. The leaders are always under extreme pressure to be regarded as strong. This is one of the reasons why they restrict information on the internet. They don’t want people to see them for who they really are and all the things that they have done in the past (i.e. Tiananmen Square). By restricting access though, they are making it pretty clear that they are trying to hide something from their people.

China: Superpower

Although China is facing many threats at home, they also have a lot of things that has enabled them to become one of the fastest rising superpowers in the history of the World.  Perhaps China’s biggest strength is their military. This is especially obvious when you look at the Tiananmen Square incident. It was only because of their military that the government was able to stop the protests. The military is the government’s “first line of defense”. However, the military also could turn against the leaders, and the leaders are definitely aware of this.  The People Libertarian Government is made up of common people. The soldiers could side with the commoners in the next revolution and if that happened, China’s leaders wouldn’t have a chance to re-gain control. Because of this, the government has done everything in their power to keep the military happy so they stay loyal. The military has a significant budget and that budget has been raised in order for the military to be able to deal with Taiwan. Since the military has gotten an increased budget, other things have gotten shorted; these things include securing clean water sources and other environmental issues that China seems not to be worried about.

Strengths of the book

This is a great book because it gives a kind of “insider’s view” of China. Shirk is able to shine a different light onto the subject of China, internally and externally. I thought the most valuable thing that this book has to offer was the insight into China’s leaders and their insecurities. Most articles and books on China are written by people who have their opinions about China’s leaders but have probably never meet or talked to them personally. Shirk has and she is not afraid to tell all. Most people that have had relationships with China’s leaders are probably not chomping at the bit to reveal all of the state secrets or insecurities. I am glad that Shirk had the guts to do exactly that. She is right in stressing the importance of the China – America relationship; it is one of the most important in the modern world. She gives a lot of advice throughout the book to China and American on how to interact with the other so that we can both benefit from a working relationship between the two powers. I really liked that she gave solutions to the problems and didn’t just simply lay out all of China’s problems without any guidance or hope to resolve them. This is important because as Shirk writes, if these two superpowers cannot get along, war is always lurking and could become a reality if things go badly.

Weaknesses of the book

This is a dense book, dense in the sense that it contains tons of facts and therefore, it was not an easy read. Although this book had a lot of good information, I felt that the way it was delivered was not very effective. The main points kept coming up in every chapter and so they were engrained into the readers. However, all of the little facts were lost in the process. It is hard for the reader to retain so many minute details about so many different events, people, etc. Someone would have to read this book a few times to actually grasp all the information that this book has to offer. Perhaps after visiting China, I will read it again so that I can put some context behind it and therefore be able to better digest all the information Shirk packs into this book. She touches on so many issues related to China and each of those issues comes packed with facts, figures, and dates. Some of these issues, such as China’s relationship with America and China’s relationship with Taiwan, could fill up a whole book on its own and Shirk packs it all into one book. Sure, the reader gets the most “bang for your buck”, but it is a lot of information to wrap your mind around.

I feel like this book has given me more insight and a different perspective on China that will deepen my understanding of China’s worldview; the worldview of China’s leaders and China’s people. Since I will be traveling to China for my first time in a few months, this book gave me some great insight into the Chinese perspective. It helped me to understand some more of China’s history and important events that shapes modern China. Shirk was able to write about China from a unique background which is very informative because of her background in government. The book definitely focused on China from a governmental policy look-out because of Shirks background. This also led to the book being a dense read. People that have a government or policy background would probably enjoy this book more because they can relate to the perspective of the author more than a student for example. Overall this was an important and worthwhile book for a graduate business student, like me, preparing for an international study abroad trip in China.