Shambaugh, professor of Asian Studies at George Washington University, writes that America, the dominant power until recently, has always felt a sense of exceptionalism. This conviction that America’s way of doing things had universal appeal seemed affirmed by its spectacular Cold War victory over the USSR, but this simply set the country up for disappointment when an increasingly powerful China began to feel its oats. The first two of nine lucidly written chapters deliver an expert if often painful chronological account of the experience of eight presidents who served since America recognized “Communist China” in 1979 and aimed to modernize, liberalize, and socialize it. Under the illusion that free-market reforms would relax its oppressive autocracy, American leaders brushed off the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and remained optimistic until 2009, when President Obama made an official visit and received rude treatment that was “intentional and not consistent with how previous American presidents had been treated.” The relationship went downhill, especially after Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, and China became increasingly repressive at home and belligerent abroad. Although its repressive system was inconsequential to President Trump, and he admires Xi, his administration was dominated by China hawks, who matched its truculence. Minus the bombast, the Biden administration continued this policy. “Engagement” was in tatters. Reaching the present day at the halfway point, Shambaugh reveals why he is not a historian but a political scientist, with four chapters delving deeply into government policy, strategy, and debates with generous use of statistics, acronyms, speeches, and actions from a huge cast of characters, NGOs, and think tanks, many unfamiliar to readers. The final chapter delivers sensible advice on how to deal with a newly assertive China. Apparently composed before the second Trump administration took office, it seems a dead letter.
