Waking Dragon: the emerging Chinese economy and its impact on the world

by Peter Navarro

China has emerged as the factory floor for global production, providing the world with cheap goods at the astonishingly low China price. But there is a very steep price to pay for these low-budget consumables, a price that very well may have dire consequences for the health and security of the planet. Peter Navarro dissects the coming China wars and their implications for issues ranging from oil prices and energy security to global warming and environmental pollution as well as from U.S. political independence and financial market stability to hot-war military conflict.
Contents Lecture 1. The dragon awakes -- Lecture 2. The statistics of growth -- Lecture 3. The "China price" -- Lecture 4. Piracy and counterfeiting -- Lecture 5. Oil -- Lecture 6. Imperialism -- Lecture 7. Air -- Lecture 8. Water -- Lecture 9. The drug trade -- Lecture 10. China's ticking time bombs -- Lecture 11. Wars from within -- Lecture 12. Military -- Lecture 13. The coming China space wars -- Lecture 14. Solutions and responses to the China problem.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Business, History, Audiobook, China, Finance

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

A 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.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a subject matter I could sound byte my way through, but this primer was thoughtful and well executed. An impressive series that helped me contextualize news and political reports.

[Lin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started this book not realizing who the author is. I was uncomfortable with his terminology, such as calling modern day, lower income people "peasants" over and over and over. This is his mentality. He is not someone whose book I would have picked up (or whose class I would attend) if I knew who he was in advance.
Personally, I find him despicable and I am glad to be done with the book.

Having said that, what is also disturbing is having completed a chapter, within a week China will come up in the news with an example of what this man taught years ago. This happened repeatedly over the months it took me to slog through this book. China is on my radar (I believe we are too dependent on their exports), but the author did not influence me there, but, now I understand the hatred 45 has for China with this guy (the author) as an advisor.

[DanielaK · Rating 1 out of 5]

Several hours of slashing China. Even though one might agree with many points the author made, their presentation is lamentable. After a couple of lectures I basically stopped paying attention to the facts presented and rather wondered why the author hates China so much. Because that is what I heard in every word he said: hate and contempt. China isn’t Sauron, a bit of objectivity and professional detachment would have been nice.

[Massimo Gioffre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting lecture. The main limit of it is that it's seen only from an american perspective. And this lack of partiality might arise some doubts on the credibility of the entire view. As a whole though it's worth listening.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting lecture series with the theme that the "Waking Dragon" is dangerous whose economy has significant negative externalities that damage the world.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This lecture series takes a broad topic and addresses each area in a lecture or two. Without spending much time on the usual Communist goals of world domination, it goes into how the Chinese government is going about its economic plan, covering internal and external problems. I was surprised at the level of corruption. An interesting example of a unexpected consequence is that they have an HIV epidemic that started with a flawed blood donation program intended to provide a source of income to peasants. The government discontinued the program without any explanation. However, private underground entrepreneurs continue the practice with even less sanitary controls than the official program. The government has kept the Chinese people quite ignorant of the disease. The people are aware of other injustices with a reported 100,000 protests annually. One of the major problems is polluting factories which are not only causing illness in China, but because of their wide scope, and thanks to the jet stream, are spreading pollution around the globe.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and very informative discussion of how China, by virtue of its size and policies, is emerging into a dominant Country. Also, somewhat troubling in terms of the impacts on the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good detail about past, present and future impacts of China. Covered economics, health, disease, labor, environment, and of course war.

[Nicole L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book!!! that has opened my eyes to the impact of China on the world economy. A must read for everyone since we are all affected by China's policies and practices.

[Bryan Seaford · Rating 5 out of 5]

an enjoyable and insightful read. I appreciate the big picture perspective.