Taylor’s China is built on the rule of Xi Jinping, forged against the tapestry of a “cult of personality” that works to ensure international dominance while avoiding foreign exploitation. Western companies walk a tightrope, according to Taylor, in part due to China’s opaque business practices, “national collective will,” and centrally controlled economy. To illustrate the challenges that can surface from those circumstances, Taylor includes several case studies, notably a particularly thorny situation concerning the National Basketball Association, which had great success in China and earned hundreds of millions in annual revenue from their market, only to suffer when NBA personnel began speaking out amid 2019’s Hong Kong protests.
Occasional tangents distract from Taylor’s main themes, but, overall, this is a comprehensive account of what external and internal forces helped shape China into the country it is today—and how it plans to become a paramount economic and military superpower. Taylor sharply examines that future vision—one that is “reliant on self-sufficiency and pride of country”—and teases apart the generational differences within China that impact the country’s economy, social stability, and international commerce. “The US and China have reached a tipping point,” she writes, one that will determine which country will be “the leader of the twenty-first century.”
Takeaway: Penetrating scrutiny of the forces driving competition between the U.S. and China.
Comparable Titles: Michael Pillsbury’s The Hundred-Year Marathon, Paolo Urio’s America and the China Threat.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-
