Coming Conflict with China, The

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Study of this topic!
Review: Contrary to what many people here have stated, this is an excellent study of Sino-American Relations. This book uses information from official Chinese sources, history, and other sources to weave a tight and well reasoned thesis about China and China's relation to America. This is well worth reading and buying.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial and Sinophobic; it adds nothing to understanding
Review: The Coming Conflict with China serves as a tabloid view of US-China relations for the next century. There is no question that friction between these powers exists and will continue without clear and unambiguous diplomatic signals passing between the countries. However, Bernstein and Munro appear to buy into the hypothesis that China is expansionist and aggressive, which at this point in history is an anachronistic view. In reality, China is indeed grappling with significant change and has a resurgence of self confidence due to its economic development and the reunification with Hong Kong. There is still apprehension in political circles as indeed the communist party is losing control of the provinces especially in the southeast. It is also no secret that Taiwan is an active investor in China and both sides will avoid conflict. The real party to watch is Japan which wants to encourage Sinophobia to reestabish its military. Unfortunately, the authors did not see beyond stereotypes or scratch beneath the surface of current events. Had they done so the book would have been more enlightening

Rating:
Summary: Competent, short, but timely treatment of a difficult topic
Review: This is not the most scholarly book you will ever read. Let that be said right away. Also, as has been mentioned before, this book takes all of its cues from Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." However, for any devotees of Huntington's theories (of which I am one) this is an interesting investigation of the one area of the world where the U.S. has the greatest potential for conflict in the near future.

Bernstein and Munro write each chapter about what they feel is a potentially important issue concerning U.S.-China relations. However the best, most interesting ones are those regarding Taiwan and the "New China Lobby." Most of you have probabaly never heard of the New China Lobby before and they are undoubtedly happy to hear that. The New China Lobby is in effect an organization of American and Chinese businesses which use their money and power to influence political decisions in the United States and to a much lesser extent in China. The number of despicable actions which have been instigated by this lobby is staggering and you will inevitably shake your head in disgust as you read how spineless many of our politicians are, and how ruthless businesses in both countries are. Many of the actions taken by the U.S. government were done in order to protect American business in China, the best example given by the authors is in regards to the Boeing/Airbus struggle for the Chinese market. Yet there are numerous others which simply smack of greed. If you are interested in reading more evidence of how big business has hijacked American politics the New China Lobby chapter of this book will be of particular interest.

The rest of the book is well informed and clearly written. It does not, as other reviewers have implied, treat the Chinese strictly in a stereotypically racist manner. What it does do is attempt to talk about the issues rather than around them. It is also worth mentioning that the chapter on Taiwan is written mostly in a narrative format detailing a possible sequence of events which could lead to American involvement in a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. Lastly, lest you fear that this book is all doom and gloom... fear not. Bernstein and Munro have a mostly positive outlook for the future and sincerely believe that it is more likely we will continue on without any armed conflict, they merely point out the circumstances that might lead to it.