Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence

by Ryan Hass

Ryan Hass charts a path forward in America’s relationship and rivalry with China rooted in the relative advantages America already possesses. Hass argues that while competition will remain the defining trait of the relationship, both countries will continue to be impacted—for good or ill—by their capacity to coordinate on common challenges that neither can solve on its own, such as pandemic disease, global economic recession, climate change, and nuclear nonproliferation.
 
Hass makes the case that the United States will have greater success in outpacing China economically and outshining it in questions of governance if it focuses more on improving its own condition at home than on trying to impede Chinese initiatives. He argues that the task at hand is not to stand in China’s way and turn a rising power into an enemy in the process but to renew America’s advantages in its competition with China.

Genres: China, Politics, Nonfiction, International Relations, Asia, International Affairs, History

240 pages, Hardcover

Published March 9, 2021

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Insipid, milquetoast foreign policy advice on this topic from an Obama-era wonk clearly seeing vague "third way" advice as a job application to the Biden admin.

[Hunter Marston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hass speaks to the pressing issues and questions of today's global balance of power, namely US-China great power competition. He comes at the topic as an insider's insider, having sat in on critical meetings with world leaders and private debates within the White House during some pivotal years in the relationship. I was quite impressed by how well-rounded his study of the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world was. He's able to tackle fiscal and monetary policy, trade deficits, supply chains, military hardware, and diplomatic interactions without skipping a beat. I didn't completely buy into some of his argument against the Quad (though points well taken), but on the whole Hass' sober and clear-eyed analysis of US China policy is desperately needed in today's breathless rush to form camps around the competing poles of pro-engagement or containment policies with regard to China. Well done, Ryan!

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Ryan Hass charts a path forward in America's relationship and rivalry with China rooted in the relative advantages America already possesses.
Hass argues that while competition will remain the defining trait of the relationship, both countries will continue to be impacted-for good or ill-by their capacity to coordinate on common challenges that neither can solve on its own, such as pandemic disease, global economic recession, climate change, and nuclear nonproliferation. Hass makes the case that the United States will have greater success in outpacing China economically and outshining it in questions of governance if it focuses more on improving its own condition at home than on trying to impede Chinese initiatives. He argues that the task at hand is not to stand in China's way and turn a rising power into an enemy in the process but to renew America's advantages in its competition with China.”

[Brian Thorson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book that adopts a pragmatic approach to evaluating the current US-China relationship and in presenting recommendations for shaping future relations.

Hass argues that the current relationship, which is unlikely to change outside of a crisis, is one best described as competitive interdependence. His argument is well supported throughout the book. From this stance, he recommends that the best way to secure US vital interests is to remain confident, avoid the temptation to react to every Chinese action, and invest in American strengths and improve its weaknesses.

In Hass’s estimate, the US has many reasons to be confident and remains the clear holder of positional advantage through a stronger and more dynamic economy, energy and food security, comparatively healthy population, peaceful borders, dynamism drawing the brightest thinkers internationally to the US, a solid legal system, and an incomparable network of allies and partners.

My biggest critique of the book is the glossing over the real possibility of a Chinese cross-strait invasion of Taiwan, a publicly stated national imperative for the CCP. How would a crisis event like this impact competitive interdependence? What assumptions in his analysis would change?

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stronger: Adapting America's China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence by Ryan Hass is a fairly strong, if overly safe, argument in favor of a more relaxed approach to China. Hass argues that we should not oppose China's rise, not force the world to adopt an adversarial stance against China where they must choose between us and them, and adopt a competitive, but managed relationship with China. It is an updated version of the old-school consensus, which appears to be surfacing in the wake of more hawkish rhetoric. The pragmatic approach on offer is a bit too much like a reversion to the status quo. Hass is an Obama appointee, and I could easily imagine this to be an advocacy piece to bring us back to Obama-era Chinese relations. Most of the points Hass makes are also safe and noncontroversial, though one wonders how much some of his conventional wisdom from 2014 appears to be breaking down. I wonder a bit about our competition not being ideological, as well as toward the skeptical nature Hass has for support for the US in a competition with China.

Even so, the book is short, and worth a read if you want to stay informed.

87/100

[Khyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent and straightforward primer (of sorts) on the state of U.S.-China relation and their (in my opinion) most likely trajectory within the current era of "great power competition" and/or a general shift in the international system from unipolar to multipolar. Although not academic in nature, the book is an easy read—albeit not the best written—and offers a fairly measured assessment of Beijing's general aspirations and core interests, as well as manages to avoid the currently prevalent trap of national security/foreign policy threat inflation around China-related topics. Noteworthy chapters are:
*Introduction
*Chapter 1: America's Enduring Strengths
*Chapter 6: Navigating Great Power Relations
*Chapter 7: Moving Forward

[BRANDON · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the beginning of the book, the author describes how he and his team where part of the presidential transition team and met with the inbound Trump administration to provide their national security assessment of the PRC. Their presentation was cut short, as the Trump administration already knew what they wanted to do. This book reads like the author trying to finish the presentation he never got to complete. Not an academic book, but tries to present its self as one. It presented a framework, that it did not define well, provide a background, or test. I didn't find anything new raised in this book...a lot of words to say very little and advocating for a return to the status quo.

[Paul Frandano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid notional blueprint for a relationship of "competitive interdependence" between the United States and China...with a glaring hole in its dead center: the mutual lack of trust that Ryan Hass never addresses (there's no entry for "trust" or "trust, lack thereof" in the index), the ghost at the banquet, a missing element that will undermine every attempted negotiation, the only solution to which is to address it head-on, in all candor, both sides lay out, honestly, all their griping perceptions of the other side that account for mutual lack of trust.

Much more later...

[Kevin Sheives · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really solid analytical look and challenge at the conventional wisdom china policy today. Took a very broad lens with everything related to US-China relations and China’s role in the world. Plenty of reason for sanity. It was a little shallow on how the United States and others react to China’s ascension elsewhere in the world and the resulting challenges to the United States achieving its interests. But also very readable

[Jim Witkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better to outcompete and out cooperate, than frame the China rise as a zero sum Cold War 2. What is striking is how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has super charged many of the recommended policies and goals. The US should continue to control what it can and focus on improving its domestic politics and strengthening its perception as a reliable partner on the world stage.

[古 张 · Rating 3 out of 5]

虽然，但是，来来回回，啰啰嗦嗦，很有条理，但没意思。可能国际关系就这样，威慑，平衡，直来直去，像小孩子过家家，但又必须有个家长在一旁看着不让出乱子。

[Kimfu]

Excellent book! I learned a lot!

二零二二年： 第三十一本书