MISUNDERSTANDING CHINA

As renowned scholar James Peck explains in this eye-opening new perspective on U.S.-Chinese relations, we have cycled through wildly disparate visions of China—each as inadequate and self-serving as the last—in our futile attempts make it conform to our interests.

Over the last half-century, China has been cast in a multitude of conflicting roles—as a “Russian puppet” by Truman, then as part of a monolithic communist bloc by Eisenhower. As a revolutionary power ready to sweep the world by Kennedy and Johnson, then as an exemplar of ruthless realpolitik by Nixon and George H.W. Bush and as a major human rights violator by Clinton. Finally, today, it is understood primarily as an illegitimate and dangerous superpower, a “behemoth” that needs to be balanced and reined in by a U.S. pivot to the Pacific.

Yet, startlingly, not one of these visions has accurately portrayed China's political stance and national character. Cutting through the distortions, Peck offers a clear-eyed and uniquely informed account of China as it was, is, and will be—and lays bare the underlying motivation for these strained and awkward visions: Washington's unrelenting determination to be the world's sole superpower.

James Peck is the author of Ideal Illusions and Washington's China. He founded the Culture and Civilization of China project at Yale University Press and teaches courses in the History and East Asian Studies departments at NYU. He has written for The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications.