This is an excellent overview of Chinese politics and foreign relations under Xi Jinping. It should appeal not only to political scientists but also anyone interested in the society, economy and the rise of China more generally. This book was written for a wide readership but is probably intended to be particularly useful to policy makers in the US. The concluding chapter includes valuable policy recommendations on how the US can engage with Xi's China in a smart and effective way.
This book is written in a journalistic rather than academic style but is based on wide-ranging in-depth research of high academic standards. It synthesizes effectively media reports, data, existing scholarship and the author's own interviews in China. The result is a book that experts will find insightful and undergraduates will find highly readable and easy to digest. This work is thoughtful, balanced and highly analytical. Economy has successfully produced a book that appeals to all interested to learn about China under Xi Jinping.
Economy is right in highlighting how China under Xi is different from that of the earlier reform period. Inspired by Peking University professor Jia Qingguo, she adopted the term “the Third Revolution” as the title of the book to describe the Xi era, in contrast to the three decades of the reform period, which she refers to as Deng's “second revolution.” In my view the use of “Third Revolution” somewhat overstates the scale of changes that Xi is unleashing. But the basic arguments Economy has put forth that the Xi era marks a real break from the Deng period are well grounded and effectively put.
There is no question that Xi has ushered in a new era, even if this does not amount to a “revolution.” The basic consultative Leninist system which was put in place in the reform period remains in place and works effectively, though collective leadership has now been replaced by leadership of “the core leader” or a strongman, with greater emphasis put on the centrality of the Party in every aspects of life. Xi has pushed the consultative Leninist system to its limits or potentially beyond. The basic structure and process of the political system have, however, not changed in a sufficiently fundamental way to merit the description of a revolution. But this is a small quibble over an otherwise excellent book.
Under Xi the two key hallmarks of the Deng era have been turned on their heads. Domestically, Deng's principle of pragmatism – encapsulated in the slogan “crossing a river by feeling for stones” – is no more. In its stead, Xi requires everyone to follow the helmsman, himself, who will take the ship of China to the promised land. Xi's approach is essentially ideological or dogmatic – Xi Jinping Thought is the new ideology, even if it has not yet been fully developed. Externally, Deng's axiom of “hiding one's capabilities and biding one's time” has been abandoned in favour of a new approach, in that China now requests and requires the rest of the world to pay it due respect. Hence, China's efforts to promote soft power often backfire.
Economy has done an admirable job in unravelling the nature of Xi's China, both domestically and globally. She rightly shows that Xi is aiming to take China forward by, in some significant ways, taking China backward. Xi's China is committed to reform but in a way that makes it less open and more restrictive to outsiders and more repressive to its own citizens. Externally, Xi projects an image that China publicly advocates globalization as Trump disengages the US from the world, but Xi only “embraces gobalization insofar as it controls the flow of ideas as well as human and financial capital” (p. 233). Thus, Xi's China “is in equal measure a threat to the underlying principles of globalization and to the liberal world order” (p. 232).
The prescription Economy has for the US is neither containment nor confrontation, but an appropriate form of engagement that requires working with allies to uphold the values of a globalized world in the liberal world order. She does not advocate containing China over the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) but suggests working with China and recipient countries of the BRI to set up mechanisms “to guide social and environmental impact assessments, transparency in the bidding process and financing, and potential projects for multilateral cooperation” (p. 244).
Economy is at her best in analysing Xi's China for what it is and putting forth constructive ideas for the US to engage it without giving up its core values. This underlying principle should apply not only to the US but to all liberal democratic countries.
