Overview
Susan Shirk is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Clinton Administration. As an expert in Chinese politics she was responsible for understanding how Chinese economic growth and political structure threaten to change the status quo. After leaving politics, she returned to teaching and is now a professor at the University of California, San Diego. In her book, China: Fragile Superpower, Shirk attempts to describe the underlying causes of China’s political stance as well as explain the effects that this stance has had on its growth and how it is seen in the global community.
Shirk’s goal in writing China: Fragile Superpower is to try and explain the differences between how China sees itself and how the rest of the world views it. She does this by explaining how China’s domestic policy is formed and how these policies affect how China interacts with the rest of the world. She states that China is in the middle of huge amounts of change and that it has the potential to become one of the world economic and political leaders. She warns, however, that how the Chinese view their own growth and place amongst the rest of the world is quite different than what we expect. Shirk tries to explain how the changes going on in China affect the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) outlook on domestic and international policy, and how this continued change will affect the balance of power around the world.
Relevance
The world is changing all around us at an unbelievable pace. While globalization as a concept has been around for decades, it has really started to take off in the last ten to fifteen years. China’s role in this new paradigm has yet to be established, but it has the potential to be a major player. In a very short time from now, China’s economy will surpass that of the United States in size. This will mark the first time in modern history that the leading world economic power is not a western nation and is not a developed nation. It is important for us as Americans to understand how this shift will affect the global balance of power. It is also important to understand what effect a powerful China can have on the United States.
The Chinese and US economies are inextricably linked. China has been sustaining the US economy for years by purchasing a lot of its debt. Until now, there has been a very profitable relationship between the US and China. China’s huge growth is due to its development of manufacturing centers within the country where companies can take advantage of the low cost of labor. This manufacturing growth, and the resulting growth of the economy, is based on the demand for cheap good around the world. In America, we can attribute our quality of life directly with the availability of cheap Chinese goods. Without a China capable of meeting the US demand for goods, Americans would be forced to make do with less. On the flip side, China’s manufacturing growth is only a result of the continued demand for cheap foreign goods by the US and the rest of the world. Without this give and take between China and the US, both economies, and especially the people who live there, would feel that effects.
In her book, Susan Shirk argues that a powerful China is much less dangerous to the United States as a weak China. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, China is quickly becoming a dominant, if not the largest, political and economic force in the world. But its rise is fragile. China’s domestic issues will forge how China will interact internationally. It is important for people to realize, however, that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Continued Chinese growth brings additional stability to a nation that for 150 years was not a player on the world stage. The growth of the Chinese economy and its rise within the global political landscape creates many opportunities for positive change. Not only are the people of China experiencing a quality of life that was never available to them in the past, but there is an opportunity for the US government to create a mutually beneficial partnership with this rising power for long lasting stability and peace.
Where Shirk excels
One of Susan Shirk’s greatest strengths in her book, China: Fragile Superpower, is her ability to lay the groundwork to help understand how decisions are made by the Chinese government. She identifies the most important issue for Communist Party leaders is to simply maintain control. As a result, it is Chinese domestic policy that requires the most attention from the government. Every policy they make and every stance they take on an international stage is done to help control the masses. She does a great job in showing how the Party’s fear of losing control is constant in every aspect of Chinese government. For the Party to maintain power, they must remain popular. The Party can not survive without the support of the people. China has a long history of violent regime change that results in the establishment of a new order. The CCP is constantly aware of the fact that their own rule is only a result of a violent uprising within the last century. This issue is an important one to understand because it helps us to frame the decision making process of the CCP in the appropriate context. While some directives and responses the government takes can seem heavy handed by outsiders, it is important to understand where the government’s motivations lie to critically assess the situation.
Another strength of Shirk’s book is its ability to describe how the Chinese government is able to maintain control of its people and what the effects of their actions has on both the Chinese people and how China is viewed abroad. The Chinese government is able to maintain control through the use of military power and its propaganda machine. She states, “The CCP has two powers, the gun and the pen, and it must control both.” Chinese leaders have always understood that their success rides on the continued support of the Chinese military. China is a country undergoing massive amounts of change. As a result, some people feel as if they are being left behind and choose to speak out. China has a long history of protests, and violent ones at that. The government relies on the military to keep demonstrations under control and to help flex the government’s muscle. But this comes with a price. Outsiders view the relatively harsh actions that the Chinese military takes on its own people as proof that China is still an authoritarian state. Recent events like the T. Square incident and the continued oppression of the people of Tibet in lieu of the 2008 Olympics give the allusion to outsiders that all the people in China are oppressed and downtrodden. But the Chinese government realizes that without their “long arm of the law” it would have difficulty controlling its people. Shirk identifies one of the Chinese government’s major concerns involves a small uprising gaining support and growing into a national movement. The Chinese military is crucial for the government to contain these fears. The other way in which the government exerts its control over its people is though its propaganda machine and the control of information. While other books and information I have been exposed to reveal how China is able to control information to its people, where Shirk excels is in her ability to demonstrate why and what effect it has on its people. The propaganda department of the CCP has a huge amount of power within the Chinese government, but I do not see this continuing to last. The
What I really enjoyed in Shirk’s book is her description of how intense Chinese nationalism rears its head in all Chinese policy. She does a great job of showing how the Chinese identity is rooted in thousands of years of tradition and how this comes out in all different types of issues. I like how she is able to relate this feeling of national pride to the outlook of the people of China as well as how the government is able to take advantage of this feeling. I think she was very effective in showing both the benefits and dangers of the strong sense of Chinese nationalism. What I found extremely interesting was how wide-spread support for the government as a whole was linked to the sentiments of nationalism. However, I also found it interesting that this hard line nationalism often served as a disconnect from local economic interests.
Susan Shirk does an excellent job of identifying the key issues that are important in Chinese international policy. She very plainly, and repeatedly, states that the majority of international policy and concern is aimed at dealing with issues regarding Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Before reading this book, I had a very shallow understanding of the relationship, or lack thereof, between China and Japan. I had learned of the history between the two nations in school, but I had no idea about the deep rooted resentment still held onto by the two nations. What struck me from her discussion of China-Japan relations was the kind of victim response that each county identified with. China is still upset about the actions the Japanese took during WWII when they invaded China and slaughtered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. And rightfully so. But this occurred in a different time, and China is a different place now. Japan, on the other hand, feels that the growth of China’s economic and political power in the region and worldwide will marginalize the importance and independence of Japan. They see China’s development as a treat to their way of life. What they fail to realize is that if they could work together they could be a major influence on the future development of the region and establish both nations as world leaders. But because each nation sees itself as the victim of the other’s actions, they both choose to continue to blame each other for their own misfortune. The growth of both nations can be stunted if they continue to work against each other rather than with each other. What I am really interested to understand is how the current situation in Japan with the tsunami and nuclear disaster is being reported in China and how the people in China view the disaster. I would like to think that there is a general feeling of empathy for the plight of the Japanese people, but I can not substantiate this claim. Is the Chinese government reporting on the full extent of the disaster? What kind of spin is being put on it? Is the Chinese government planning on providing any type of aid? What are the young people’s reactions to the disaster? These are all questions that I would like to have answered as they can give us some very good insight into how Chinese – Japanese relations have evolved since the release of Shirk’s book and as a result of this event. This disaster, while an unspeakable tragedy for the people of Japan, can actually act as platform for relations to improve between China and Japan.
Where Shirk falls short
My main critique of Susan Shirk’s China: Fragile Superpower is how she chooses to focus on the details. In our last book review for James Fallows’, Postcards from Tomorrow Square, I said I liked how Fallows was able to give a good comprehensive look at some of the issues facing today’s China without getting bogged down in too much detail. As Professor Carr put it, it is like looking down at China from a 10,000 foot perspective. The logical progression for our study of China is to look at views that are more detailed and focused on certain issues. However, I think Shirk takes this a bit too far. My impression of this book is that it is dense with information. I mean real dense. While reading, I found myself getting bogged down in the details at many points, and this really affected my understanding of her main points. A lot of times I felt like I was missing the forest for the trees. Shirk is attempting to provide a comprehensive look at how China is changing and how this will affect its people, rulers, and the rest of the word. But she is doing so by providing an extreme level of detail. Relating this idea to the “10,000 foot perspective,” I felt like this book was attempting to give a 1000 foot perspective by taking street level snapshots and fitting them all together. In the end, the final image, while comprehensible, seems fuzzy and out of focus.
Closing thoughts
Overall, I thought Susan Shirk’s China: Fragile Superpower was an extremely well written book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the growth and changes going on in China and how it relates to the world as a whole. The book gives a comprehensive overview of the true strength of Chinese growth and how it is viewed both domestically and around the world. Shirk also does a great job of applying what she discussed to what the effects can be for us here in the United States. However, this book does cover some very complex issues, and her desire to cover so many topics leads to some heavy reading. This is not a book for someone looking for some light reading on China trying to just get a general overview of key issues. This is an in depth look at why Chinese policy is the way it is and how it effects both its own people and the global status quo.
Despite my issues with the intense depth of this book, I thought it was a great choice to continue our understanding of China. I think Shirk did a great job of providing follow up for our initial “10,000 foot view” of China. She really began to expose us to some of the details and the nitty gritty stuff that forms the basis for Chinese policy. As a result of reading this book I definitely think I have a clearer picture of why China is poised to become a major player on the world stage. In addition, I think I have a better understanding of the opportunities and dangers that may arise from the growth of China into a world superpower. And in the end, isn’t that the point of our MBA program, to help us to understand the risk and rewards that are out there so that we can be successful in our professional lives?
