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Coming China Wars, The: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won, Revised and Expanded Edition
For years, China has served as the "factory floor" for global production, driving down prices for consumers worldwide. But, unfortunately, China's rapid and chaotic industrialization has put it on a collision course with the rest of the world. The Coming China Wars was the first book to systematically cover all those conflicts: political, economic, and environmental. Now, in this new edition, Dr. Peter Navarro has thoroughly updated the entire book. You'll find new chapters on the danger posed by China's flood of defective products and contaminated food; China's dramatic military expansion and the rising threat of a "hot war"; China's space program and its profound strategic implications; China's growing suppression of human rights and free speech; and much more. The coming China Wars will be fought over everything from decent jobs, livable wages, and advanced technologies to strategic resources...and eventually to our most basic of all needs: bread, water, and air. Unless all nations immediately address these impending conflicts, the results may be catastrophic. Like the First Edition, this book demands that we think much more deeply about how to stop the coming China Wars, laying out hard choices that must be made sooner rather than later. This new edition offers even more policy recommendations, including original contributions from several of the world's most important China experts.
243 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
55 people are currently reading
377 people want to read
About the author
Peter Navarro
49 books116 followersA Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He received several teaching awards in 2010 for the MBA programs that he teaches.
Navarro ran for office in San Diego, California, three times. In 1992, he ran for mayor, winning the primary race, but losing to Susan Golding in the runoff. In 1996, he ran for the 49th Congressional District, but lost to Republican Brian Bilbray. In 2001, Navarro ran in a special election to fill the District 6 San Diego city council seat, but lost in the primary.
Navarro ran for office in San Diego, California, three times. In 1992, he ran for mayor, winning the primary race, but losing to Susan Golding in the runoff. In 1996, he ran for the 49th Congressional District, but lost to Republican Brian Bilbray. In 2001, Navarro ran in a special election to fill the District 6 San Diego city council seat, but lost in the primary.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 25, 2009
Excellent. There is a lot to be concerned about with China. I agree with Mark Steyn that the weaknesses of our enemies are the greatest threat to us. China has a lot of internal problems. The book is also recommended by a CFR member. Highly ironic since those folks are busy doing all they can to break the might of America and to usher in the "New World Order". China is a huge threat. Hope people are paying attention when China is making moves to get the world to dump the dollar as the reserve currency. We will be toast when that happens.
December 7, 2012
this book was a waste of time read about putting (now) China as the prime enemy for USA...USA consumption was high, so no companies want to build products in USA because it is expensive and no one wants to get low paid..so naturally, companies move to China to build at low cost..revenue goes to the pockets of CEO, Executives, PE firm, Wall Street...then China became the world factory for US appetite for massive consumption..then China is the enemy??because their economy is risen?? as a OEM factory house?? Please read Peter Schiff who is better.
August 6, 2008
Everyone should read this book. And then boycott all products "made in China" until that country demonstrates some global responsibility, humanity, ethics and morals. It will amaze you to find out what the world has let China get away with - much of it funded by us purchasing their knock-offs and cheap goods.
July 16, 2018
This book is essentially a list of everything wrong about China without much context and with a lot of subjectivity. I'm very disappointed with the lack of real analysis and the absence of solutions that the title of the book signals exist. This is far less informative than other books about China and more of a pure "hit piece" on China.
September 29, 2008
Eye opening book about how China is impacting the whole world; and potentially changing more than just ecomonic conditions. You get what you pay for, and we are all about to pay a price much higher than the Made in China label would suggest.
I would highly recommend this read.
I would highly recommend this read.
February 11, 2012
When I read this book many of the trade anecdotes of flawed and contaminated Chinese manufactured products had not hit the press. Since, I often wonder about the dangers in the products that make it to our shelves.
December 30, 2025
In 2006 this book seemed alarmist, but now it is incredibly realistic. The author managed to predict most of the economic wars we have in 2025, even though much more subtle than Navarro thought will be.
July 15, 2008
Peter Navarro is worried about China and if you read his book, you are at the very least, you may well get concerned as well. The Coming China Wars details problems with Chinese production, quality control, human rights and environmental protection. He also points to Chinese foreign policy as an indicator that China is moving into peer competitor territory. Let's look at each in turn.
Navarro wants US consumers to limit buying Chinese goods, because it is not good for the American economy and because it supports bad Chinese work and environmental habits. He provides a number of cases of evidence for this, although some lean toward the anecdotal. Many times it is difficult to know the scale of the problems he is presenting. How much of the Chinese produced medicine is shoddy for example? I suppose the answer in that case is that one case is too many, but it can be hard to tell how serious the problems that Navarro presents are. His tone can reach the apocalyptic which reduces the appeal of his arguments to the unsure.
Quite a bit of the problems he relates call into question the ability of China to continue on its growth path. Internal divisions, more class than ethnic, are a problem. Environmental degradation is reaching critical levels and the wealthy classes will only go so long without a shift to a consumer culture. This is helpful, as most of the books you read tend to treat China's rise as inevitable.
On the foreign policy side, he portrays Chinese as a rapacious neo-imperialist creating new outposts places as far from Beijing as Central Africa and Latin America. This shouldn't be unexpected. China is growing more wealthy and powerful and as such it is spreading its wings. In few ways does this threaten the United States in any meaningful way. The Chinese Army, Navy and Air Force remain far behind the US and would not fare well in any conflict and the Chinese are sure to know this. Navarro strains credulity when he suggests Chinese anti satellite facilities on Cuba might lead to a new Cuban missile crisis.
So take a look at this book for some reasons to reconsider your shopping and for reasons to think that China's rise may stumble, but don't over-react.
Navarro wants US consumers to limit buying Chinese goods, because it is not good for the American economy and because it supports bad Chinese work and environmental habits. He provides a number of cases of evidence for this, although some lean toward the anecdotal. Many times it is difficult to know the scale of the problems he is presenting. How much of the Chinese produced medicine is shoddy for example? I suppose the answer in that case is that one case is too many, but it can be hard to tell how serious the problems that Navarro presents are. His tone can reach the apocalyptic which reduces the appeal of his arguments to the unsure.
Quite a bit of the problems he relates call into question the ability of China to continue on its growth path. Internal divisions, more class than ethnic, are a problem. Environmental degradation is reaching critical levels and the wealthy classes will only go so long without a shift to a consumer culture. This is helpful, as most of the books you read tend to treat China's rise as inevitable.
On the foreign policy side, he portrays Chinese as a rapacious neo-imperialist creating new outposts places as far from Beijing as Central Africa and Latin America. This shouldn't be unexpected. China is growing more wealthy and powerful and as such it is spreading its wings. In few ways does this threaten the United States in any meaningful way. The Chinese Army, Navy and Air Force remain far behind the US and would not fare well in any conflict and the Chinese are sure to know this. Navarro strains credulity when he suggests Chinese anti satellite facilities on Cuba might lead to a new Cuban missile crisis.
So take a look at this book for some reasons to reconsider your shopping and for reasons to think that China's rise may stumble, but don't over-react.
October 12, 2014
This book is certainly written from the pro-american perspective: china is catching up, we(americans) must do something about it. China pursues same goals and uses same methods US has been doing in the past: putting developing countries in the credit debt pit and asking for resources in the end to payback. The author does not notice this obvious thing!
The prof talks about chinese manufacturing that poisons not just the american trades but all other smaller weaker economies. The 'china price' destroys any kind of competitive spirit on the global market - it is virtually impossible to compete with them. Chinese cut their costs on all levels: no pension plans, no paid vacation, no labour unions, workers are slaves, management, clusterism.
But not just that! The chinese emmisions in the air REACH CANADA & US - across the ocean! China pollutes not just its own air - but other countries as well.
The prof talks about chinese manufacturing that poisons not just the american trades but all other smaller weaker economies. The 'china price' destroys any kind of competitive spirit on the global market - it is virtually impossible to compete with them. Chinese cut their costs on all levels: no pension plans, no paid vacation, no labour unions, workers are slaves, management, clusterism.
But not just that! The chinese emmisions in the air REACH CANADA & US - across the ocean! China pollutes not just its own air - but other countries as well.
November 22, 2008
An eye opening book to understanding the global ramifications of all of our actions. I also feel that if one reads it with an open mind, you will see how cyclical our world economy is...looks the same thing discussed in this book is about to happen in Vietnam. Basically if we are getting something cheap, it is usually balanced by an expense to someone else in the world. We read it for book club. My one complaint would be it was very doomsday with no answer son how to solve the problems. However, I understand there is a new edition out with an additional chapter which DOES offer solutions...my advice would be to get that edition.
November 11, 2008
After reading this book, I've found myself checking obsessively for the origin of products I buy, so the book accomplished it's task, but it wasn't a pleasant read. I know it's written to appeal to the same type of audience as Friedman's The World is Flat, but I found myself getting anxious each time I picked it up from the breathless tone of impending doom (accentuated by way to many commas). The use of quotes got tiresome, as well as the clever headlines. (Weapons of Mass Construction.
Bravo on the subject, but I was glad to put it down.
Bravo on the subject, but I was glad to put it down.
April 13, 2009
China is likely to be a much bigger problem than we want to believe. You thought we were consuming the earth's resources? The Chinese want what we have and more! And who can blame them when we have set the standard for consumerism. Don't expect them to settle for second best. But it is a recipe for disaster. A good corollary to Thomas Friedman's books: The World is Flat, and "Hot, Crowded and Flat".
April 5, 2015
An interesting book, not really enough detail and let down by some generalities. That said, an important introduction to China's context. Worth reading after some Chomsky, lest the reader be tempted to point fingers...
January 30, 2013
Although the author seems bias, I would recommend this book as it enlightens one on a wide range of important issues that are taking place not only in China, but around the world.
February 29, 2016
Let's see to a real transformation of this so-called country of mine, currently besieged by the Communist Party. Every decision matters.
January 19, 2017
Peter Navarro you shameless motherfucker
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February 27, 2023Scary stuff...
July 4, 2008
“[China] requires our understanding and engagement - not our enmity and suspicion, which could culminate in self-defeatingly creating the very crisis we fear.”
A line from the book? Hardly! Nevertheless, The Coming China Wars relates in an unmistakable to this quote, for it exemplifies in starkest terms the very enmity and suspicion that Will Hutton (2006) cautions against in “The Writing on the Wall: Why We Must Embrace China as a Partner or Face Her as an Enemy.” If the choice of title for the book itself fails to communicate the line of thought that pervades the book, the reader need not go any further than the author's introduction, which he begins with a fictitious October 25, 2012, News Release, entitled "U.S.-China Chill Melts Down World Markets." It remains highly debatable whether or not, as the author claims, "China has put itself on a collision course with the rest of the world," or whether that purportedly inevitable course is not possibly the result of a larger combination of factors, including not least highly de-contextualized and emotional analysis for which the United States, in the eyes of the noted German journalist and author, Peter Scholl Latour, appears to have a near infallible inclination in recent years. The Coming China Wars merely helps to further cement this perception.
In the author's own words, "this book is a carefully researched attempt to break free from the chains of repression and non-fact-based rhetoric that has characterized so much of the current debate" (p. 211) and "[T]he primary research for this book involved analyses of tens of thousands of pages of material from books, newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, government agencies...international organizations..., "think tanks," and numerous websites and blogs" (p. 219). If the reader makes it through the book and resisting the temptation to throw it away after the first chapter, these comments are bound to trigger laughter. For such purportedly extensive research, the book offers nothing in terms of explanatory and objective analytical value. In fact, rather than steering away from non-fact-rhetoric, as Navarro claims, he did not hesitate to further contribute to it.
Of 217 pages, a grand total of 134 feature extensive, sometimes paragraph- or page-long quotes of various sources. It becomes quickly obvious that the text following these quotes is merely a descriptive and biased attempt at further extending the message in the original citation. My personal favorite was that the author, in his arguably diligent research has put primary emphasis on websites and blogs, as the bibliography clearly attests. He did not even hesitate to draw on Wikipedia as a source on two occasions - to define the notion of "realpolitik" (he did not even bother to look at the voluminous literature on realpolitik itself to provide an authoritative definition), and then in his discussion of China's dam building.
For a more extensive review, including detailed critical commentary on the various chapters,, see my review posted on Amazon.com.
A line from the book? Hardly! Nevertheless, The Coming China Wars relates in an unmistakable to this quote, for it exemplifies in starkest terms the very enmity and suspicion that Will Hutton (2006) cautions against in “The Writing on the Wall: Why We Must Embrace China as a Partner or Face Her as an Enemy.” If the choice of title for the book itself fails to communicate the line of thought that pervades the book, the reader need not go any further than the author's introduction, which he begins with a fictitious October 25, 2012, News Release, entitled "U.S.-China Chill Melts Down World Markets." It remains highly debatable whether or not, as the author claims, "China has put itself on a collision course with the rest of the world," or whether that purportedly inevitable course is not possibly the result of a larger combination of factors, including not least highly de-contextualized and emotional analysis for which the United States, in the eyes of the noted German journalist and author, Peter Scholl Latour, appears to have a near infallible inclination in recent years. The Coming China Wars merely helps to further cement this perception.
In the author's own words, "this book is a carefully researched attempt to break free from the chains of repression and non-fact-based rhetoric that has characterized so much of the current debate" (p. 211) and "[T]he primary research for this book involved analyses of tens of thousands of pages of material from books, newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, government agencies...international organizations..., "think tanks," and numerous websites and blogs" (p. 219). If the reader makes it through the book and resisting the temptation to throw it away after the first chapter, these comments are bound to trigger laughter. For such purportedly extensive research, the book offers nothing in terms of explanatory and objective analytical value. In fact, rather than steering away from non-fact-rhetoric, as Navarro claims, he did not hesitate to further contribute to it.
Of 217 pages, a grand total of 134 feature extensive, sometimes paragraph- or page-long quotes of various sources. It becomes quickly obvious that the text following these quotes is merely a descriptive and biased attempt at further extending the message in the original citation. My personal favorite was that the author, in his arguably diligent research has put primary emphasis on websites and blogs, as the bibliography clearly attests. He did not even hesitate to draw on Wikipedia as a source on two occasions - to define the notion of "realpolitik" (he did not even bother to look at the voluminous literature on realpolitik itself to provide an authoritative definition), and then in his discussion of China's dam building.
For a more extensive review, including detailed critical commentary on the various chapters,, see my review posted on Amazon.com.
June 17, 2023
Despite the provocative name this book mainly focuses on China's internal strife. Things that could cause an aggressive or unpredictable Chinese state in the future. I personally enjoyed this book more than his more recent "Crouching Tiger". But this book didn't give me much respect for the author because 25% of it was made up of quotes from various political magazines and newspapers. it felt more like extrapolations from those quotes and figures. They weren't unintelligent extrapolations, but I found myself thinking "another quote? really?"...
I enjoyed this book, it gave a lot of insights into the Chinese economy that I hadn't had previously. I recommend it to anyone who likes "China watching" as Dr. Navarro phrases it.
I enjoyed this book, it gave a lot of insights into the Chinese economy that I hadn't had previously. I recommend it to anyone who likes "China watching" as Dr. Navarro phrases it.
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April 22, 2009This book was a real eye-opener for me. How can we keep buying products from China when they abuse their people so badly? The money they get from us is used to buy nuclear weapons that they can use against us, and all the oil and minerals they can get their hands on regardless of the price. (Murder,Executions, torture are all part of their plan.)
I wonder if they will use their nuclear weapons first, or succumb to their own poisons and pollutions. It was hard for me to believe just how sinister China's government is. It is inevitable we will someday have to deal with them either as a partner or at war.
God help us!
I wonder if they will use their nuclear weapons first, or succumb to their own poisons and pollutions. It was hard for me to believe just how sinister China's government is. It is inevitable we will someday have to deal with them either as a partner or at war.
God help us!
August 14, 2008
The Coming China Wars by Peter Navarro is probably one of the most advertised China-related books this year. For weeks it nailed the small Adsense box on my Inside-out China blog (apparently Google did a good job of matchmaking), and I got so tired of seeing it all day everyday that I deleted Adsense. The book thus made my blog ad-free.
The question is whether it is worth the advertising money or a reader's time. Continue reading here: http://www.insideoutchina.com/2008/08...
The question is whether it is worth the advertising money or a reader's time. Continue reading here: http://www.insideoutchina.com/2008/08...
November 13, 2017
The author really lets his imagination roam free on the possible flashpoints between the world's only superpower and the nation that wants to be the next one. I came to this book as one who thinks the paths of history and national desire will bring the U.S. to loggerheads, be it military or not. However, even with my prior notions and reading, this book highlighted several interesting irritants that I had not known of. These include, China vs. Vietnam over the damming of the Mekong, the looming AIDS crisis in China (and India) and more.
August 4, 2014
Desde Leader Summaries recomendamos la lectura del libro China: conflicto a la vista, de Peter Navarro.
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: innovación, globalización.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro China: conflicto a la vista, La cara oculta del gigante asiático: China: conflicto a la vista
Las personas interesadas en las siguientes temáticas lo encontrarán práctico y útil: innovación, globalización.
En el siguiente enlace tienes el resumen del libro China: conflicto a la vista, La cara oculta del gigante asiático: China: conflicto a la vista
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October 3, 2007Great data, but his anti-China is too overt.
November 2, 2007
woi2 buku ini menurut gw rada berlebihan dalam menilai kejelekan cina, seolah2 US paling bener...tapi gw rada bingung kenapa bokap muji2 nih buku,,,,
February 6, 2009
This book is horrible!!
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January 6, 2012Audible (Unabridged)
April 18, 2013
I thought this was a good read for me to better understand some of the economics and business strategies and politics around China and US trade. It could have been written better though!
January 2, 2014
Although the Author makes some very valid points, the overall tone is xenophobic and alarmist.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews