Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping

Sulmaan Wasif Khan

Published by Harvard University Press 2018

Haunted by Chaos

China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping

Sulmaan Wasif Khan

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674987029

Overview
Contents

About this book

Before the Communists came to power, China lay broken. Today it is a global force, but its leaders are haunted by the past. Sulmaan Wasif Khan chronicles the grand strategies that have sought to protect China from aggression and ensure it would never again experience the powerlessness of the late Qing and Republican eras.

Reviews

Written with verve and insight, this will become the go-to book for anyone interested in the foundations of China’s grand strategy under Communist rule.
-- Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World History

Khan’s brilliant analysis will help policymakers understand the critical rise of China in the twenty-first century. He has written the essential guidebook to the evolution of China’s strategy—crucial if we are to avoid conflict with this emerging superpower.
-- Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy (Ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO

Haunted by Chaos is an ambitious and masterful study. In seeking to crack the ‘operational code’ of successive Chinese leaders, Khan argues that they all have been deeply driven by a profound sense of national insecurity. His book is a useful reminder that for all of China’s apparent strengths today, its fragilities and insecurities continue—a paradox worth watching as Beijing becomes a world power.
-- David Shambaugh, author of China’s Future

By emphasizing geography, Khan has unraveled the mystery of Chinese grand strategy, showing why insecurity lies at the root of Chinese power projection. A wise and seasoned book; readers will not find a shrewder analysis as to why the Chinese act as they do.
-- Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of Geography

[A] fine survey of Chinese grand strategy.
-- Richard Aldous American Interest

The foreign policy cognoscenti in Washington have spent the past three years in a collective China reckoning, based in part on the presumption that China’s foreign policy has radically changed. Kahn argues that since before the People’s Republic of China’s founding, Chinese rulers have held remarkably consistent objectives, even as their definition of security has expanded.
-- Mira Rapp-Hooper War on the Rocks

An authoritative treatment of Chinese statecraft since Mao Zedong…Given China’s outsize presence on the world stage, Khan’s insights into the underlying rationale of its leadership will afford his own effort an audience beyond the field of international relations.
-- Publishers Weekly

Useful for decision-makers who might not understand that Beijing’s grand strategy is structural and firm and will not be charmed away or pared back by trade deals.
-- Choice

An outstanding contribution to our understanding of that most urgent of contemporary geopolitical questions: what does China want? Khan shows that Chinese grand strategy has always been a blend of ideology and pragmatism—sometimes skillful, sometimes careless, but always crucial to understanding global history and politics.
-- Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Forging Great China Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Mao Zedong and the Balance of Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Deng Xiaoping and Seeking Truth from Facts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and the Virtue of Dullness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Xi Jinping and the Insecurity of Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Further Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Pages
- Main content: 286
Illustrations
- Other: 2 maps
Keywords: taiwan; hong kong; investment; chiang kai shek; civil war; CCP; tiananmen; cultural revolution; foreign policy; soviet union; britain; anti imperialism; united states; japan; nikita khrushchev; henry kissinger; guomindang; PRC; PLA; zhou enlai

eBook

Published: July 9, 2018
ISBN: 9780674987029