The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State Reprint Edition

This is one of the best books I have read on China in the past few years. It brought a degree of clarity to the enormously complex political and economic changes underway in China today that I have not encountered in other books. The author argues convincingly that Xi Jinping’s China is significantly different from that of Deng Xiaoping or Mao Zedong ( the second and first revolutions) and poses a new type of challenge for the United States. She points to four trends in particular as distinguishing Xi China from that of his predecessors: the extraordinary consolidation of power in Xi's own hands, the growing role of the Communist Party in Chinese society and economy, the increasing ability of the Party to control the amount of information and capital that comes into China from the outside world, and a much more assertive Chinese foreign policy. She grounds her argument in interesting and novel insights from both interviews with Chinese officials and businesspeople, as well as fascinating material from Chinese history. (For example, she traces the role of censorship and anti-corruption campaigns not only back to Mao’s China but also through different periods of Imperial China.) There is also a section on what the United States should do about China, which I found quite helpful given all of the tensions in the U.S.-China relationship today. Overall, I found the book to be smart, nuanced, and engaging. Well worth the time and money.

For me this was a followup to Henry Kissinger because he only went up to around 2010 when Obama was starting and Hu Xintao was the ruler of China. I was unfamiliar with Elizabeth Economy, but she works with Richard Haass, a frequent talking head from the establishment, and Max Boot, a hawkish neocon who in 2002 embraced the term neocon at a time when everybody was nitpicking over the exact meaning of neocon. He accepted the general meaning of an all around worldwide hawk. As Ted Cruz once said, invade every country on earth (he wasn't advocating it), or as Michael Ledeen and Jonah Goldberg said, pick some country and throw them at the wall every decade or so. Boot is a harsh Trump critic along with Frum and Kristol, and like Frum and Jen Rubin I really don't know how they match the term conservative at all, but whatever. But I'm getting off topic. The point is, Economy is a younger lady but she works with some established figures.The main point of the book is that Xi Jinping is the most powerful leader since Chairman Mao. That's saying something, considering Deng Xiaoping shaped the direction for decades and Jiang Xemin was a formidable figure in his own right, as Kissinger observed. The "third revolution" involves some of the Hu era but really picked up under the current leadership. Despite the Tienanmen Square tragedy, there was a general trend of economic reforms, that many hoped would be a catalyst for political and human rights reforms. Thishas emphatically gone in the opposite direction. It would be interesting to tackle the history of Russia since the Soviet Union and how there may be parallels.The various chapters chronicle the crackdown on political opposition, including an increased control over the internet. This has provoked resistance at home and abroad, including among the entrepreneurs who have made many innovations in the technological economy. There is also a military buildup, as we've recently seen in the news. Kissinger noted that military power wasn't the main factor in the rise, but it has been a result that has developed a lot in the past decade. The militarism goes with nationalist sentimentof course, and the reversal of various financial reforms from the Deng and Jiang eras, with an increased tendency toward government owned businesses. All these things have affected China's ability to relate to the international liberal order, which it didn't participate in creating. The liberal order itself is in crisis,with the rise of various forms of populism and nationalism in different regions.Elizabeth Economy, perhaps for the purpose of influence and cooperation, takes a reasonable approach to the Trump administration (the colleagues in the establishment are talking heads who generally criticize Donald). The hawkish stance that developed in the early to mid part of this decade seems confirmed by what was going on with Xi and the third revolution. I use hawkish not in the sense ofinterventionism, but his attitude toward trade and other aspects of the relationship. Economysuggests that measures of retaliation, economic and other, are necessary in this new era of the relationship between China and the US.

While I'm an avid reader of all things foreign policy, I'm trying to learn more about China and it's role in the world. "The Third Revolution" by Elizabeth Economy is an incredibly insightful and all-encompassing examination of the changes taking place in China under President Xi Jinping and the effects that these sweeping reforms are having abroad. On what surely is based on hours of interviews with experts, businessmen, and government officials, the book examines the impact of these changes on topics ranging from tech innovation to environmental policy. It's a quick read, and conveniently structured--each chapter focuses on a different aspect of Chinese society and government. In terms of readability, the author weaves together research and personal anecdotes, making what could easily be a boring tome into a compelling narrative on a complicated subject. As someone who studied international relations but did not focus on China, I felt that this book was the perfect explainer for China under Xi Jinping. I highly highly recommend this book for both China scholars and non-experts alike since it does a fantastic job of explaining it to the layman while also providing in-depth research and analysis on an extremely important issue. If you’ve ever watched the news and been confused by China’s convoluted governing system or seemingly contradictory policies, do yourself a favor and get this book!