The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order

Description

For more than a century, no US adversary or coalition of adversaries - not Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, or the Soviet Union - has ever reached sixty percent of US GDP. China is the sole exception, and it is fast emerging into a global superpower that could rival, if not eclipse, the United States. What does China want, does it have a grand strategy to achieve it, and what should the United States do about it? In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking readers behind the Party's closed doors, he uncovers Beijing's long, methodical game to displace America from its hegemonic position in both the East Asia regional and global orders through three sequential strategies of displacement. Beginning in the 1980s, China focused for two decades on hiding capabilities and biding time. After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it became more assertive regionally, following a policy of actively accomplishing something. Finally, in the aftermath populist elections of 2016, China shifted to an even more aggressive strategy for undermining US hegemony, adopting the phrase great changes unseen in century. After charting how China's long game has evolved, Doshi offers a comprehensive yet asymmetric plan for an effective US response. Ironically, his proposed approach takes a page from Beijing's own strategic playbook to undermine China's ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for-dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan. Cover Series Title Copyright Dedication Bridging the Gap Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. “A Coherent Body of Thought and Action”: Grand Strategy and Hegemonic Order 2. “The Party Leads Everything”: Nationalism, Leninism, and the Chinese Communist Party PART I “HIDING CAPABILITIES AND BIDING TIME”: BLUNTING AS CHINA’S FIRST DISPLACEMENT STRATEGY (1989– 2008) 3. “New Cold Wars Have Begun”: The Trifecta and the New American Threat 4. “Grasping the Assassin’s Mace”: Implementing Military Blunting 5. “Demonstrate Benign Intentions”: Implementing Political Blunting 6. “Permanent Normal Trading Relations”: Implementing Economic Blunting PART II “ACTIVELY ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING”: BUILDING AS CHINA’S SECOND DISPLACEMENT STRATEGY (2009– 2016) 7. “A Change in the Balance of Power”: The Financial Crisis and the Dawn of Building 8. “Make More Offensive Moves”: Implementing Military Building 9. “Establish Regional Architecture”: Implementing Political Building 10. “Aboard Our Development Train”: Implementing Economic Building PART III “GREAT CHANGES UNSEEN IN A CENTURY”: GLOBAL EXPANSION AS CHINA’S THIRD DISPLACEMENT STRATEGY (2017 AND BEYOND) 11. “Toward the World’s Center Stage”: American Decline and China’s Global Ambition 12. “Standing Tall and Seeing Far”: The Ways and Means of China’s Global Expansion 13. An Asymmetric Strategy for US- China Competition Conclusion Appendix Notes Index