No Limits and China After Mao

NO LIMITS by Andrew Small, a well-connected and experienced policy analyst, offers rather dire warnings while describing “The Inside Story of China's War with the West.” For example, Small points to Huawei and its attempts to exert control through establishing 5G infrastructure as activity leading to Western resistance which, in turn, prompted China to retaliate, further strengthening its reputation as a bully. It is interesting to speculate on future directions for relationships as each side undoubtedly perceives a shift from being world trade partners to a greater rivalry and perhaps outright threat, economically, technologically, and militarily. Small is not hesitant in his characterization of players involved, saying, “The polished, pragmatic heirs of Zhou Enlai have made way for diplomatic thugs.” He looks at the West’s rather delayed reaction to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and devotes an entire chapter to COVID 19 and “the politics of the pandemic,” again questioning China’s motives and highlighting a lack of cooperation and openness. Throughout, Small mourns the loss of voice and intellectual freedom in China, making a compelling argument that “the era of closer business and political ties between China and the West is over.” He advocates for more immediate, dramatic focus: “the risk is that the joint response to China falls far short, hobbled not by the full frontal opposition of years past but by inertia, inattention, a desire for the path of least resistance.” Be prepared for some denser text interspersed with fascinating insider personal stories, including those involving Small’s friend, Desmond Shum, author of Red Roulette (named a 2021 best book of the year by The Economist and Financial Times). NO LIMITS has an eye-catching cover and is certainly worth a deeper look, especially since it will remind readers of the need for updated perspective and of how little most of us really know about Chinese history, its leaders, and their intentions. 

CHINA AFTER MAO by Frank Dikötter, Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, takes an historical perspective, tracing action in China from Mao’s death in 1976 mainly through 2012 when Xi Jinping officially took power. Dikötter writes, “If this book proves anything, it is that without political reform market reform cannot exist.” His assessment is chilling, noting comments like this one from a party leader in the late 1980s: “once their living standards had been raised, people in China would acknowledge the superiority of socialism. And then, he added, ‘we can gradually reduce the scope for liberalisation further and further.’” Dikötter also points out some surprising facts – did you know that China has less than a million resident foreigners? He says this is “roughly 0.07 percent of its total population, the lowest proportion of any country, less than half that of North Korea” and well below the 2.8 percent figure for Japan. Of course, I had already heard of dissidents like Liu Xiaobo, Ai Weiwei, or Chen Guangcheng, but Dikötter places their actions and the party’s reaction in a wider context, including recent events when “in 2015, the campaign turned against the business community, with a string of corporate leaders arrested for fraudulent investments abroad. Several billionaires disappeared, leaving the others scrambling to prove their loyalty to the party.” Extremely detailed and informative, CHINA AFTER MAO contains an extensive bibliography and numerous reference notes based in large part on Dikötter’s access to archives in mainland China. This newly published title received a starred review from Kirkus (“an excellent, highly critical description of China’s spectacular expansion”) while Publishers Weekly characterized it as “a must-read for China watchers.”