Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy Hardcover – Illustrated, March 31, 2020

This is an easy to read book that offers critical insights on probably the most influential geopolitical event of this century, and that is the rise of China as well as the potential split of the world into a western and a China driven ecosystems. Given the author's political experience and opportunity to see many of the political dynamics first hand, he is able to explain many of the complex issues in easily understandable languages. However, this will not be an easy read for those who come with pre-conceived impressions of either China or the US because certain parts of the book will inadvertently create cognitive dissonance as the author presents facts and opinion that run counter to deep-rooted believes.For me who grew up getting most of my information from western media about China, my first shock came when I started to live in China. What I observed and experienced during my almost a decade of living there were quite different from my preconceived impressions of China and especially of the Chinese government. Reading this book gave me much clarity on how to explain this cognitive dissonance that I experienced.Like it or not, China will become the largest economy in the world. Therefore, it is important for individuals to understand China as it is and not based on opinions that are politically and ideologically biased. The Chinese government is no saint but neither is it the evil empire must be stopped before it managed to enslave the free world. The Chinese government is neither better nor worse than the US government. They should be assessed both by its merits and its short comings. This book offers many useful perspectives and facts to think about many issues.One common theme of the book is that the world is a complex place made of societies and countries that have different histories, cultures, availability of resources as well as geo-political realities. Despite the dominant belief in the western world, a one-size-fit-all political framework has never worked and will never work for all. The western liberal democratic ideals have undoubtedly helped many countries in the past couple centuries escape authoritarian rules and have done exceptionally well for the people. However, thinking of it as the ultimate political system that every country eventually should adopt is impractical, naïve and also the cause of many conflicts in the world today. Many countries that adopted the same system flopped. The book spent gave many examples and offered logical explanations.Just like everything in life, there are limitations to any political system, regardless how successful it has been. There are prior assumptions. It works under certain circumstances and doesn't in others. Mindlessly promoting any system without clear understanding of its limitation and the objective realities of the environment will likely yield disappointing or even disastrous results.In summary, I think this is a book worth reading if one wants to understand the complex geopolitical tensions happening between the east and the west. The book gave me a clear mental framework to parse many events that are happening today that don't make sense on the surface. I believe this mental framework will be helpful to me in navigating the increasing complexity of the future world.

An insightful book written by a former Singapore diplomat and UN ambassador who has the privilege to be immersed in both Asian and the West culture. Its main points have been summarized well in other reviews. As a Chinese American who grow up in China, I can attest to his description of Chinese culture and mindset. More specifically:- CCP is first and foremost Chinese, not communist. Even though the party started as a communist party, its leaders' mind are occupied with thousands of years of Chinese culture and wisdom. They're pragmatic, supple and flexible. A closed society with an open mind.- Chinese culture historically emphasizes cultural and diplomatic influence, not military conquer. Contrary to what western media's depiction, a military and expansionist China is not what Chinese leaders or Chinese people want. For people who refers to South China Sea as a counter example, the author has a detailed description of the history in that region and in particular US's involvement and you should read it. The gist is that even though Chinese government has made mistakes, it is by no means proof that China is a military threat to its neighbors in that region.- China is not interested in exporting communism to the rest of the world, nor do they believe in universality of the western democracy as the sole legitimate way of governance. This is partly rooted in the ancient Chinese philosophy/belief that the Middle Kingdom is the only rightful place for Chinese to live in. Even though CCP has supported communist revolution in other countries in early days after it gained power, the effort has long stopped after a friendly warning from Lee Kuan Yew. The country has focused instead on domestic economic development and reform.- Political suppression does exist in China, but CCP can't rule 1.3 billion people through just suppression. To go against the will of 1.3 billion with a suppressive stronghold is just not sustainable. Chinese people long for order and harmony, and there's a high degree of trust endowed on the central government by the Chinese people. So far the government has delivered on its promises, and Chinese people have seen their standard of living elevated dramatically over the past 30 years. A third-party poll (Edelman Trust Barometer 2018) shows that China ranked the highest in their government trust level (84%) compared to US at 15th place (33%).I also find it interesting that one of the reviews that gathered the most "Helpful" clicks is one that simply dismisses most of Mahbubani's insight as "propaganda", "just copy" without any reference, data or analysis to support the claim. It speaks volume about the difficulty of getting Mahbubani's message through to American's collective mind. As the book noted in Chapter 5, it's almost impossible for US to make a U-turn in its policy-making, not even bringing the very idea that US may be making critical strategic mistakes to public for an open discussion, despite it having the freest media in the world.I applaud the author's effort and hope it can make a meaningful impact.