China's Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road

by Tom Miller

Overview

'China', Napoleon once remarked, 'is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.' In 2014, President Xi Jinping triumphantly declared that the lion had awoken.

From holding its ground in trade wars with the US, to presenting itself as a world leader in the fight against climate change, a newly confident China is flexing its economic muscles for strategic ends. With the Belt and Road initiative, billed as a new Silk Road for the 21st Century, China is set to extend its influence throughout Eurasia and across the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. But with the Chinese and US militaries also vying over the Pacific, does this newfound confidence put China on a collision course with the US?

Combining a geopolitical overview with on-the-ground reportage from a dozen countries, this new edition of China's Asian Dream engages with the most recent developments in the ongoing story of China's ascendency, and offers new insights into what the rise of China means not only for Asia, but for the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783609239
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/15/2017
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Tom Miller is a senior analyst at Gavekal Research, a global economic research service, and editor-at-large of China Economic Quarterly. Tom was educated at the University of Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and spent two years studying Mandarin in Beijing. A former jourbanalist and resident in China for 14 years, he has reported from a dozen countries in Asia. He is also the author of China's Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History (Zed 2012). Tom now lives in England, but spends much of his time travelling in Asia.
Tom Miller is a senior analyst at Gavekal Research, a global economic research service, and editor-at-large of China Economic Quarterly. Tom was educated at the University of Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and spent two years studying Mandarin in Beijing. A former jourbanalist and resident in China for 14 years, he has reported from a dozen countries in Asia. He is also the author of China's Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History (Zed 2012). Tom now lives in England, but spends much of his time travelling in Asia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
 
Introduction
1 “One Belt, One Road”: Financing the New Silk Road
Belt and Road Initiative
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Asia’s infrastructure arms race
 
2 Marching West: The Economics of Power in Central Asia
Xinjiang
Central Asia
Russia
 
3 In the Heat of the Sun: Advancing Down the Mekong
Laos
Cambodia
 
4 California Dreamin’: How China “Lost” Myanmar
Gateway to the Bay of Bengal
 
5 A String of Pearls: Fear and Loathing in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
Pakistan
India
Sri Lanka
 
6 Fiery Waters: Mapping the South China Sea
Vietnam
 
Conclusion
 
Notes
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

“Understanding the philosophy behind China’s national aspirations will be a defining task of  twenty-first-century diplomacy. In that vein, China’s Asian Dream will prove essential reading.

Wall Street Journal

“An indispensable guide to the vision, personalities, institutions, and methods that underpin the emergence of the next superpower. Brimming with telling insights and arresting stories, China’s Asian Dream really hits the ball out of the park.

Financial Times - James Kynge

“A terrific combination of data and pavement-pounding local investigation, with discussions between academics, market traders and officials from Laos to India.

Hong Kong Review of Books

“This is a book about power, money, and sought-after love. A must-read for those interested in whether President Xi’s reincarnated ‘silk road’ will succeed in restoring the grandeur of the middle kingdom.

Yukon Huang

“Miller tackles the central question of our time: whether China can translate its economic power into geopolitical clout, and execute its breathtaking plan to dominate its Asian neighbours. For Xi Jinping, this is nothing less than a return to the natural order which prevailed until the nineteenth century. For the rest of us, it threatens to turn the old world dominated by the West upside down.

Richard McGregor

“An essential resource to understanding the thinking behind the Belt and Road Initiative.

SupChina

“One of the best researched volumes on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s driving vision, his ‘dream’ to return his country to the dominant position it had held in Asia since ancient times.

William R. Hawkins

“In this vividly observed account from the front lines, Miller charts the reality of China’s growing power through the eyes of its neighbors. One of the best accounts we have of what China’s rise really means for the world.

Hugh White

“A useful addition to the debate over China’s behavior as a great power.

Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

[A] vivid and useful guide to China's unfolding strategy and its economic and diplomatic ramifications.” —ChinaDialogue

“A lively work … particularly strong on the role that Chinese-backed infrastructure development will play in fulfilling [China's regional] ambition.” —Financial Times

“A terrific combination of data and pavement-pounding local investigation, with discussions between academics, market traders and officials from Laos to India.” —Hong Kong Review of Books

“Superbly organised ... Miller deftly combines the plethora of data points and statistics with vivid local colour.” —South China Morning Post

“Understanding the philosophy behind China's national aspirations will be a defining task of 21st-century diplomacy. In that vein, China's Asian Dream will prove essential reading.” —Wall Street Jourbanal

“Excellent … Tom Miller has voyaged around China's periphery [and] his long experience of analysing the Chinese economy enables him to puncture a few over-inflated myths.” —Bill Hayton, author of South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia

“One of the best accounts we have of what China's rise really means for the world.” —Hugh White, author of The China Choice

“An indispensable guide... brimming with telling insights and arresting stories, China's Asian Dream really hits the ball out of the park.” —James Kynge, Emerging Markets Editor for The Financial Times

“A uniquely well informed view of the opportunities, and the huge risks, of China's bold ambitions in the region.” —Kerry Brown, author of China and the New Maoists

“Tom Miller tackles the central question of our time: whether China can translate its economic power into geopolitical clout, and execute its breath taking plan to dominate its Asian neighbours.” —Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

“One of the best researched volumes on Chinese President Xi Jinping's driving vision, his 'dream' to returban his country to the dominant position it had held in Asia since ancient times.” —William R. Hawkins, Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research

“A must read for those interested in whether President Xi's reincarnated “Silk Road” will succeed in restoring the grandeur of the Middle Kingdom.” —Yukon Huang, former World Bank Director for China

From the Publisher

“Understanding the philosophy behind China’s national aspirations will be a defining task of twenty-first-century diplomacy. In that vein, China’s Asian Dream will prove essential reading.

Wall Street Journal - Praise for the previous edition

“Ambitious. . . . written in accessible language and persuasively argued.

Pacific Affairs

“With a deft turn of phrase, Miller turns what could be a dry topic into a great read.

Splash 24/7

“Superbly organized. . . . Miller deftly combines the plethora of data points and statistics with vivid local color.

South China Morning Post

“China's Asian Dream offers an engaging and up-to-date analysis of China's regional strategy. . . . Miller's analysis is balanced, and he succeeds in steering clear of the anti-China bias so prevalent among many Western analysts. . . . The book is useful not only to Asia watchers, but also to scholars and policy makers in Africa and Latin America.

Oliver Stuenkel

“As a snapshot of China’s relations with its neighbors . . . this book is highly recommended.

Business Tianjin

“A crisp, well-researched and well-written account. Miller has travelled extensively throughout Asia and across China’s maritime periphery. His is a uniquely well-informed view of the opportunities, and the huge risks, of China’s bold ambitions in the region.

Kerry Brown

“'Excellent. . . . Miller has voyaged around China’s periphery [and] his long experience of analysing the Chinese economy enables him to puncture a few over-inflated myths.

Bill Hayton

“Recommended to journalists, practitioners, policy makers, and academicians, to those who have dealings with China, and to ordinary people who are interested in China as an emerging power.

Insight Turkey

“Chinese people are proud of their country’s economic renaissance but baffled by its dearth of friends. . . . Under President Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic is moving to right that imbalance, using a mix of economic blandishments and shows of military strength. In China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road Miller lays out how the enterprise is supposed to work—and why it might not.

Reuters

“Chinese people are proud of their country’s economic renaissance but baffled by its dearth of friends. . . . Under President Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic is moving to right that imbalance, using a mix of economic blandishments and shows of military strength. In China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road Miller lays out how the enterprise is supposed to work—and why it might not.

Reuters

“Understanding the philosophy behind China’s national aspirations will be a defining task of  twenty-first-century diplomacy. In that vein, China’s Asian Dream will prove essential reading.

Wall Street Journal

A useful addition to the debate over China’s behavior as a great power.

Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

China's Asian Dream offers an engaging and up-to-date analysis of China's regional strategy. . . . Miller's analysis is balanced, and he succeeds in steering clear of the anti-China bias so prevalent among many Western analysts. . . . The book is useful not only to Asia watchers, but also to scholars and policy makers in Africa and Latin America.

author of Post Western World Oliver Stuenkel