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Praise for Aaron Friedberg
“A decade ago, Aaron Friedberg courted unpopularity with A Contest for Supremacy, a book anticipating the imminent failure of engaging China at any price. His warnings were demonstrably worth heeding. Now in Getting China Wrong he makes the case that the United States and other democracies still underestimate the struggle ahead. But this is no counsel of despair: instead, Friedberg articulates a multi-layered action agenda, arguing that the best form of defense could well involve a willingness to impose costs.”
Rory Medcalf, Head of the National Security College,
Australian National University, and author of Indo-Pacific Empire
“A telling account of how and why policy-makers, academics, and business embraced a form of engagement with China that proved to be a sincerely optimistic but hopelessly wrong gamble. A trenchant and accessible foray into the geopolitics of our time and our future.”
George Magnus, Research Associate,
China Centre, University of Oxford and SOAS
“In Getting China Wrong, Aaron Friedberg lays out a balanced and practical approach for managing relations with China. Most compellingly, he argues that liberal democracies must begin by taking their own side in this rivalry, making clear the stark differences of a future defined by the Chinese Communist Party. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to navigate a multipolar world order.”
Admiral John Richardson, USN (Ret.),
31st Chief of Naval Operations
“Friedberg’s Getting China Wrong nails down half a century of mistaken American assumptions about China’s future path. This essential non-partisan primer highlights the increasingly bold strategy of the Chinese Communist Party to defeat Western expectations.”
François Godement, Senior Advisor for Asia,
Institut Montaigne, Paris
“A splendid book with deep insights into the nature of the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship and an urgent message about the need to uphold and expand the liberal international order in Asia.”
Nobu Kanehara, former Deputy National
Security Advisor to PM Abe of Japan
Dedication
For Nadège Ma chère femme, je te remercie pour tout.
GETTING CHINA WRONG
Aaron L. Friedberg
polity
Copyright © Aaron L. Friedberg 2022
The right of Aaron L. Friedberg to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4513-1
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946893
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Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.
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Preface
Writing about contemporary China from the perspective of an American concerned