Overview

China is rising. But how should the West - and the United States in particular - respond? This could be the key geopolitical question of the twenty-first century, according to strategic expert Hugh White, with huge implications for the future security and prosperity of the West as a whole. The China Choice confronts this fundamental question, considering the options for the Asian century ahead. As China's economy grows to become the world's largest, the US has three choices: it can compete, share power, or concede leadership in Asia. The choice is momentous - as significant for the future as any the US has ever faced. China is already more formidable than any country the US has faced before - and if America does not want to find itself facing China as an enemy, it must accept it as an equal partner. Weighing the huge difficulties of accepting China as an equal with the immense cost and risks of making it an enemy, in the end the choice is simple, even if it is not easy. The US simply must share power with China in Asia. The alternative is too terrible to contemplate.

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9780199684717

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Reviews

Erudition and a first-rate intellect, without the baggage of prejudice --a must-read. --Bob Hawke, prime minister of Australia 1983-1991 Every student of Asian geopolitics will benefit from reflecting on the arguments in The China Choice. --Walter Russell Mead, editor-at-large of The American Interest The future of the US-China relationship is the single most significant and dangerous international issue of our time. Hugh White's book is a brilliant and incisive analysis of that relationship and contains vitally important recommendations for how its dangers may be avoided and peace secured. It is indispensable reading for both policy-makers and students of current affairs. --Anatol Lieven, King's College London, author of America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism Because I see many so many aspects of Chinese -- and US -- policy in a different light from the one Hugh White sheds on them in his book, I am the more sincere in urging attention to his analysis. Americans in particular will find it valuable to consider this trenchant assessment from a sympathetic but clinically detached perspective. Agree or disagree in the end, readers will be better off for understanding White's case. --James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Hugh White's book offers the finest synthesis to date of all the major questions facing East Asia. It is a provocative work imbued with intellectual integrity. It is about the biggest question in international affairs -- the future relationship between the United States and China. And the author's conclusions will satisfy no one, which is as it should be. --Robert D. Kaplan, chief geopolitical analyst for Stratfor

A short, incisive and original book. * Books of the Year, Financial Times * Scores of titles on every aspect of China's rise continue to appear. Most rehearse familiar themes and debates. Hugh White's The China Choice is a rare exception that breaks new ground. It is also written in exceptionally lucid prose that reflects a bracing clarity of thought. * Gideon Rachman, Financial Times *

Scores of titles on every aspect of China's rise continue to appear. Most rehearse familiar themes and debates. Hugh White's The China Choice is a rare exception that breaks new ground. It is also written in exceptionally lucid prose that reflects a bracing clarity of thought. Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

Author Information

Hugh White is Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. Since the 1980s he has played a major part in debating, developing and implementing Australian foreign and defence policy, including a period as Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence in Australia's Department of Defence, and he was the principal author of Australia's 2000 Defence White Paper. Over the past decade he has become a leading figure in public debates about defence and foreign policy.

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