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Bully of Asia: Why China's Dream is the New Threat to World Order
The Once and Future Hegemon
In a world bristling with dangers, only one enemy poses a truly mortal challenge to the United States and the peaceful and prosperous world that America guarantees. That enemy is China , a country
-that invented totalitarianism thousands of years ago
-whose economic power rivals our own
-that believes its superior race and culture give it the right to universal deference
-that teaches its people to hate America for standing in the way of achieving its narcissistic “dream” of world domination
-that believes in its manifest destiny to usher in the World of Great Harmony
-which publishes maps showing the exact extent of the nuclear destruction it could rain down on the United States
Steven Mosher exposes the resurgent aspirations of the would-be hegemon—and the roots of China’s will to domination in its five-thousand-year history of ruthless conquest and assimilation of other nations, brutal repression of its own people, and belligerence toward any civilization that challenges its claim to superiority.
The naïve idealism of our “China hands” has lulled America into a fool’s dream of “engagement” with the People’s Republic of China and its “peaceful evolution” toward democracy and freedom. Wishful thinking, says Mosher, has blinded us to the danger we face and left the world vulnerable to China’s overweening ambitions.
Mosher knows China as few Westerners do. Having exposed as a visiting graduate student the monstrous practice of forced abortions, he became the target of the regime’s crushing retaliation. His encyclopedic grasp of China’s history and its present-day politics, his astute insights, and his bracing realism are the perfect antidote for our dangerous confusion about the Bully of Asia .
In a world bristling with dangers, only one enemy poses a truly mortal challenge to the United States and the peaceful and prosperous world that America guarantees. That enemy is China , a country
-that invented totalitarianism thousands of years ago
-whose economic power rivals our own
-that believes its superior race and culture give it the right to universal deference
-that teaches its people to hate America for standing in the way of achieving its narcissistic “dream” of world domination
-that believes in its manifest destiny to usher in the World of Great Harmony
-which publishes maps showing the exact extent of the nuclear destruction it could rain down on the United States
Steven Mosher exposes the resurgent aspirations of the would-be hegemon—and the roots of China’s will to domination in its five-thousand-year history of ruthless conquest and assimilation of other nations, brutal repression of its own people, and belligerence toward any civilization that challenges its claim to superiority.
The naïve idealism of our “China hands” has lulled America into a fool’s dream of “engagement” with the People’s Republic of China and its “peaceful evolution” toward democracy and freedom. Wishful thinking, says Mosher, has blinded us to the danger we face and left the world vulnerable to China’s overweening ambitions.
Mosher knows China as few Westerners do. Having exposed as a visiting graduate student the monstrous practice of forced abortions, he became the target of the regime’s crushing retaliation. His encyclopedic grasp of China’s history and its present-day politics, his astute insights, and his bracing realism are the perfect antidote for our dangerous confusion about the Bully of Asia .
256 pages, Paperback
Published January 25, 2022
186 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
About the author
Steven W. Mosher
17 books50 followersSteven W. Mosher is an internationally recognized authority on China and population issues, as well as an acclaimed author, speaker. He has worked tirelessly since 1979 to fight coercive population control programs and has helped hundreds of thousands of women and families worldwide over the years.
In 1979, Steven was the first American social scientist to visit mainland China. He was invited there by the Chinese government, where he had access to government documents and actually witnessed women being forced to have abortions under the new “one-child policy.” Mr. Mosher was a pro-choice atheist at the time, but witnessing these traumatic abortions led him to reconsider his convictions and to eventually become a practicing, pro-life Roman Catholic.
Steven has appeared numerous times before Congress as an expert in world population, China, and human rights abuses. He has also made TV appearances on Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, 20/20, FOX and CNN news, as well as being a regular guest on talk radio shows across the nation.
Articles by Steve have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, The New Republic, The Washington Post, National Review, Reason, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Freedom Review, Linacre Quarterly, Catholic World Report, Human Life Review, First Things, and numerous other publications.
Steven Mosher lives in Virginia with his wife, Vera, and their nine children.
In 1979, Steven was the first American social scientist to visit mainland China. He was invited there by the Chinese government, where he had access to government documents and actually witnessed women being forced to have abortions under the new “one-child policy.” Mr. Mosher was a pro-choice atheist at the time, but witnessing these traumatic abortions led him to reconsider his convictions and to eventually become a practicing, pro-life Roman Catholic.
Steven has appeared numerous times before Congress as an expert in world population, China, and human rights abuses. He has also made TV appearances on Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, 20/20, FOX and CNN news, as well as being a regular guest on talk radio shows across the nation.
Articles by Steve have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, The New Republic, The Washington Post, National Review, Reason, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Freedom Review, Linacre Quarterly, Catholic World Report, Human Life Review, First Things, and numerous other publications.
Steven Mosher lives in Virginia with his wife, Vera, and their nine children.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 18, 2020
Amazing book by a man who knows China inside and out. Mosher shows that China (with its belief of being a superior race and its dreams of dominating the world) is America’s most dangerous foe. The PRC has oppressed Tibetan people, attacked India, and tried to conquer Taiwan. Not only do the leaders of China and North Korea have a lot in common (“surrounded by flourishing personality cults” as they “both run nuclear-armed, dictatorial regimes known for widespread human rights abuses” -p. 281), but the PRC keeps North Korea afloat by supplying 90% of its economic needs. Great overview of Chinese leaders and history. Highly recommended.
Quotes:
“The twentieth century...has left us all too familiar with the word totalitarianism. Still somewhat exotic is hegemony, which the Chinese introduced to the world, first in theory, and of late in practice. This is the notion that the premier goal of foreign policy should be to establish absolute dominance over one’s region and, by slow extension, the world. China’s pursuit of hegemony predisposes it to predetermine the outcome of territorial and other disputes by threats, intimidation, blackmail and, if necessary, out-and-out force. Contrast this with the default behavior of democracies, which is to seek peaceful, neighborly relations, and which, in the event that disputes do arise, naturally seek to resolve them by negotiation and treaty.” -p. 9
“China’s early innovations in statecraft-- totalitarianism and hegemony-- are less well known than its discovery of gunpowder or its cultivation of silkworms, but they may ultimately prove to have the greater impact on the world.” -p. 34
“The autocratic political system that the Qin emperor and his Legalist advisor had designed-- with its absolute monarch, centralized bureaucracy, state domination over society, law as a penal tool of the ruler, mutual surveillance and informer network, persecution of dissidents, and political practices of coercion and intimidation-- entered China’s cultural DNA and continued to replicate itself down through the centuries and the dynasties. It is little surprise that China remains a centralized, autocratic, bureaucratic government-- and an empire in waiting-- even today.” -p. 47
“Communism enabled Mao to recruit and effectively deploy a huge standing army and police force, and to concentrate all EXISTING economic resources in the hands of the state...But the strength of Maoism, like that of its imperial predecessors, lay in reducing the people to obedience rather than in producing an abundance of goods. Communism was simply incapable of generating new wealth and technology at the rate that capitalism did; this made it difficult for a Communist nation to equip its army, however vast, with weapons sophisticated enough to challenge its capitalist adversaries.” -p. 101
Despite the fact that Mao is responsible for more deaths than Hitler: “Chairman Mao’s giant portrait continues to grace Tiananmen Gate, and his memory is still revered by many. Fully 85 percent of the Chinese people still say that Mao’s merits outweigh his faults, which makes him by far the most popular of history’s mass murderers.” -p. 102
By 2008, China had established a “five-tiered social-monitoring network, which included camera surveillance in public areas, Internet surveillance, regular police patrols on the streets, mutual monitoring by peers in the workplace, and monitoring by neighborhood committees. This was...an ever more technologically sophisticated elaboration of what has been a constant feature of life in the PRC from the beginning. Those who argue that China’s economic reforms would lead to political liberalization need to take note.” -pp. 136-7
“If the American political ideal is ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ then the Chinese political ideal is ‘government of the people, by the bureaucracy, for the hegemon.’...Or to adapt a Jeffersonian metaphor, if the people are the horse, then the bureaucracy is the saddle and reins, ready for the booted and spurred hegemon to ride.” -pp. 153-4
“That the Tibetans might prefer to govern themselves and enact their own laws instead of being governed by a foreign race with a superiority complex is simply inconceivable to (the Chinese). The same Chinese who will rail for hours about the evil foreigners who colonized China in centuries past, will angrily defend China’s right to colonize Tibet in the present day.” -p. 212
“These efforts constitute the most extravagant program of state-sponsored propaganda the world has ever seen...But how can this redeem the brand of a Communist Party that, during the ironically misnamed Cultural Revolution, deliberately destroyed much of the country’s art, artifacts, and architecture?...Behind sun-drenched paddy fields and the neon-lit skyscrapers of propaganda flicks lurks the Chinese party-state, and no amount of face paint will hide the ugliness of one-party dictatorship… that routinely locks up and tortures human rights activists, aborts mothers who are pregnant without permission, oppresses its restive minorities, and each year executes more people than the rest of the world combined.” -pp. 256-9
“By (Taiwan’s) powerful example of ordered liberty, it contradicts the Communist Party’s claim to be the sole alternative to chaos in China. With its first-world living standards and life spans, it exposes the continued poverty of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Taiwan, in short, is not just a parallel universe coexisting uneasily with an evil twin, but rather a road map to what could one day exist in all of China. That is why the Chinese party-state is determined to extinguish this beacon of freedom, and it is also why we must continue to protect it.” -p. 290
“Young people in China today have been taught to idolize two of the great mass murderers of history, Mao Zedong and the first emperor of the Qin dynasty…, and for the same reason: ‘They unified China.’ Nothing else matters.” -p. 294
Quotes:
“The twentieth century...has left us all too familiar with the word totalitarianism. Still somewhat exotic is hegemony, which the Chinese introduced to the world, first in theory, and of late in practice. This is the notion that the premier goal of foreign policy should be to establish absolute dominance over one’s region and, by slow extension, the world. China’s pursuit of hegemony predisposes it to predetermine the outcome of territorial and other disputes by threats, intimidation, blackmail and, if necessary, out-and-out force. Contrast this with the default behavior of democracies, which is to seek peaceful, neighborly relations, and which, in the event that disputes do arise, naturally seek to resolve them by negotiation and treaty.” -p. 9
“China’s early innovations in statecraft-- totalitarianism and hegemony-- are less well known than its discovery of gunpowder or its cultivation of silkworms, but they may ultimately prove to have the greater impact on the world.” -p. 34
“The autocratic political system that the Qin emperor and his Legalist advisor had designed-- with its absolute monarch, centralized bureaucracy, state domination over society, law as a penal tool of the ruler, mutual surveillance and informer network, persecution of dissidents, and political practices of coercion and intimidation-- entered China’s cultural DNA and continued to replicate itself down through the centuries and the dynasties. It is little surprise that China remains a centralized, autocratic, bureaucratic government-- and an empire in waiting-- even today.” -p. 47
“Communism enabled Mao to recruit and effectively deploy a huge standing army and police force, and to concentrate all EXISTING economic resources in the hands of the state...But the strength of Maoism, like that of its imperial predecessors, lay in reducing the people to obedience rather than in producing an abundance of goods. Communism was simply incapable of generating new wealth and technology at the rate that capitalism did; this made it difficult for a Communist nation to equip its army, however vast, with weapons sophisticated enough to challenge its capitalist adversaries.” -p. 101
Despite the fact that Mao is responsible for more deaths than Hitler: “Chairman Mao’s giant portrait continues to grace Tiananmen Gate, and his memory is still revered by many. Fully 85 percent of the Chinese people still say that Mao’s merits outweigh his faults, which makes him by far the most popular of history’s mass murderers.” -p. 102
By 2008, China had established a “five-tiered social-monitoring network, which included camera surveillance in public areas, Internet surveillance, regular police patrols on the streets, mutual monitoring by peers in the workplace, and monitoring by neighborhood committees. This was...an ever more technologically sophisticated elaboration of what has been a constant feature of life in the PRC from the beginning. Those who argue that China’s economic reforms would lead to political liberalization need to take note.” -pp. 136-7
“If the American political ideal is ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ then the Chinese political ideal is ‘government of the people, by the bureaucracy, for the hegemon.’...Or to adapt a Jeffersonian metaphor, if the people are the horse, then the bureaucracy is the saddle and reins, ready for the booted and spurred hegemon to ride.” -pp. 153-4
“That the Tibetans might prefer to govern themselves and enact their own laws instead of being governed by a foreign race with a superiority complex is simply inconceivable to (the Chinese). The same Chinese who will rail for hours about the evil foreigners who colonized China in centuries past, will angrily defend China’s right to colonize Tibet in the present day.” -p. 212
“These efforts constitute the most extravagant program of state-sponsored propaganda the world has ever seen...But how can this redeem the brand of a Communist Party that, during the ironically misnamed Cultural Revolution, deliberately destroyed much of the country’s art, artifacts, and architecture?...Behind sun-drenched paddy fields and the neon-lit skyscrapers of propaganda flicks lurks the Chinese party-state, and no amount of face paint will hide the ugliness of one-party dictatorship… that routinely locks up and tortures human rights activists, aborts mothers who are pregnant without permission, oppresses its restive minorities, and each year executes more people than the rest of the world combined.” -pp. 256-9
“By (Taiwan’s) powerful example of ordered liberty, it contradicts the Communist Party’s claim to be the sole alternative to chaos in China. With its first-world living standards and life spans, it exposes the continued poverty of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Taiwan, in short, is not just a parallel universe coexisting uneasily with an evil twin, but rather a road map to what could one day exist in all of China. That is why the Chinese party-state is determined to extinguish this beacon of freedom, and it is also why we must continue to protect it.” -p. 290
“Young people in China today have been taught to idolize two of the great mass murderers of history, Mao Zedong and the first emperor of the Qin dynasty…, and for the same reason: ‘They unified China.’ Nothing else matters.” -p. 294
July 15, 2020
Chinese minister of propaganda says, “ The media must be controlled by trustworthy Marxist who are loyal to the party...”
Hmm, why does this feel familiar to me as an American when it’s so far away in China ? Gosh I just can’t figure it out.
Fantastic book , well written, well researched, a wealth of information.
FREE HONG KONG ! 🇭🇰
Hmm, why does this feel familiar to me as an American when it’s so far away in China ? Gosh I just can’t figure it out.
Fantastic book , well written, well researched, a wealth of information.
FREE HONG KONG ! 🇭🇰
May 20, 2019
Steven Mosher paints a picture of China that has been a brutal oppressor throughout its millennia-long history and, after suffering a temporary setback, is now back with a vengeance. While the depiction of China as irredeemably evil and the West as always benevolent sounds to me like the kind of simplistic reading of history that he accuses the Chinese state of propagating, there is no doubt that the threat represented by China (specifically, the Chinese Communist Party) is real. The author shows how, even after adopting a semi-capitalist economic model and gradually shedding the trappings of Communism, China has continued to ruthlessly crush dissent within its borders while constantly seeking to expand the latter. Most disturbingly, Xi Jinping, the current leader of China, has done away with the the checks that have previously existed on his position and assumed unchallenged power, and the Party propaganda has been stoking up rabid nationalism and blatant racism, traits that have been historically present in the Chinese people, but are now being taken to new heights. All this is being accompanied by an unprecedented build-up of military force, as well as a rush to lay their hands on as many vital resources around the world as possible. China's only weakness appears to be its image, which is not particularly attractive to outside observers. In short, it looks like war is brewing, and decisive action (by the US, above all) is required to curb China's ambitions for regional and, possibly, world domination. The book came out in 2017, and Mosher, apparently, still took Donald Trump seriously at the time, because he praises the latter's stance on China, although even he writes that Trump is "more right about China than he probably knows". Hopefully, whoever comes to replace him will have read, at least, this book. One way or another, China will be a major player in the years to come, and we would do well to learn more about it. This is a good starting point.
April 7, 2021
A fantastic and troubling read that looks at what the CCP's long game really is. The author goes back in history to show just how often China's been at war throughout its history and lays out their millennia-old quest to assert themselves as the world hegemon. They take a dim view of all other cultures and make no bones about doing what they must to run the planet believing the world would be better if we just submitted to their rule.
Read this to see not only how awful it would be, but how dangerous American leaders are to be selling out to China.
Read this to see not only how awful it would be, but how dangerous American leaders are to be selling out to China.
April 29, 2018
This book expounds well on Chinese history in reference to World History. The only downside of this book is the last chapter, which deals with the current issues with China. It seems to have been written in such a rushed manner that his conclusion seemed rather weak.
May 5, 2020
Essential Reading
So I would consistently list our threats in the same breath...Russia & China. I have a new outlook after reading this book, and look forward to another read quite soon.
I would like to learn if China's One-Child policy might change the inevitable conclusion that Mr Mosher reaches, or at least what effect it will have.
So I would consistently list our threats in the same breath...Russia & China. I have a new outlook after reading this book, and look forward to another read quite soon.
I would like to learn if China's One-Child policy might change the inevitable conclusion that Mr Mosher reaches, or at least what effect it will have.
July 17, 2019
center of the world, great uniformity harmony, communism disease of heart vs skin, history of hegemony from US via 1971, Mongol dynasty dominance, 1842 Opium Wars with England broke off 3 areas, Tiananmen 1m protest corruption bureaucracy, Zhou Enlai book for more democracy and capitalism, not 2 suns nor hedgemons, look at Mongolia and Manchuria for example of China colonialism and what Tibet is changing, term limits on lower ranks, people with respect for tyrants continue to be ruled by tyrants, 250k political corruption arrests, kill chicken to quiet monkey, murder without spilling blood house arrest get sick and die, superiority and inferiority complex both, black at bottom of race ladder, religion of China is China, 600 Confucius Institutes at colleges MU Stanford buy influence and China version of history where is truth, buying via donations to colleges China's version of history and socialism.
September 23, 2020
For me this book connected the dots on recent news about China. China has to control the South China Sea “islands”, Taiwan, and Hong Kong because that is its historic role as “Hegemon” going back 4,000 years. An excellent and revealing book.
March 30, 2021
An excellent work for those wanting to understand the history upon which the Mainland China regime is built.
March 3, 2022
Dr. Mosher writes an eye opening account one of the biggest threats to the survival of America's Constitutional Democracy.
October 26, 2020
This book took me some effort to get through as the early chapters are composed of early history and developmental idealogys that are not the most page turning content but it is necessary as the ideas will be returned to in later chapters. Now that I have finished the book I greatly enjoyed it. The knowledge and perception that I have gained are worth the effort to read concisely and slowly considering the content before me. This book made me think about foreign policy in a way that I was unable to before. I learned from this book. And that is one of the best compliments that I can give an author.
November 29, 2020
Absolute must read for anyone interested in foreign relations
Aside from somewhat common grammar errors through the book I found this book to be an informative read and couldn't put it down. It can be difficult not get frustrated with our current foreign relations and become motivated to never buy another Chinese good again. Please take the time to read this book in its entirety.
Aside from somewhat common grammar errors through the book I found this book to be an informative read and couldn't put it down. It can be difficult not get frustrated with our current foreign relations and become motivated to never buy another Chinese good again. Please take the time to read this book in its entirety.
July 18, 2021
Anyone who wants to understand China, its ambitions and strategies must read this book. From a perspective of a non-Chinese and who has witnessed what China continues to stealthily do in the West Philippine Sea, this books affirms China's bold ambition to become the world's hegemon. It is everyone's duty to be vigilant and to take action to prevent China from realizing its goal to exercise its despotic powers over the rest of the nations.
October 27, 2021
I listened to the audiobook and found the information extremely interesting. The content helps the reader who is following the current events explain the history and outlook of China in today's view. Although as an American I am not a fan of the CCP and its bully attitude this book explains why China
is saber-rattling especially in light of the weak American administration we have unfortunately been saddled with.
is saber-rattling especially in light of the weak American administration we have unfortunately been saddled with.
May 7, 2020
This is an informative historical, political and current review of China and how it fits into the modern world as of 2019.
May 9, 2021
The real truth about China
This book is truly enlightening. Well written by Steven Mosher. You will be amazed at how our country is blinded by its own politics.
This book is truly enlightening. Well written by Steven Mosher. You will be amazed at how our country is blinded by its own politics.
June 3, 2024
Strongly opinionated. I wonder how much of this is frustration over being detained by the Chinese government and his subsequent expulsion from Stanford’s doctor program. Hard feelings can fuel strong responses.
That said, Mosher was prescient on many Chinese predications – especially those related to Xi’s actions. Written in 2017, Mosher accurately predicts many recent moves by President Xi Jinping. I thought this was impressive and, regardless of his past, Mosher seems well tuned to China’s domestic and geopolitical actions.
But a piece of me is left wondering about that axe Mosher might be grinding. In terms of writing, Mosher writes in a matter-of-fact style and makes his points multiple times. The last two chapters could be skipped without losing anything due to their repetitive nature.
Four soft Goodread stars.
That said, Mosher was prescient on many Chinese predications – especially those related to Xi’s actions. Written in 2017, Mosher accurately predicts many recent moves by President Xi Jinping. I thought this was impressive and, regardless of his past, Mosher seems well tuned to China’s domestic and geopolitical actions.
But a piece of me is left wondering about that axe Mosher might be grinding. In terms of writing, Mosher writes in a matter-of-fact style and makes his points multiple times. The last two chapters could be skipped without losing anything due to their repetitive nature.
Four soft Goodread stars.
May 18, 2020
Very informative but extremely repetitive, especially in the later chapters. This book sheds some light on why China is what it is and why the world deals with them as we do.
Having seen live on TV the horrors of Tiennamin Square, I was not real surprised to see Chinese officials welding doors shut of houses infected with Covid-19. Reading this book at this time was both enlightening and terrifying at the same time.
Having seen live on TV the horrors of Tiennamin Square, I was not real surprised to see Chinese officials welding doors shut of houses infected with Covid-19. Reading this book at this time was both enlightening and terrifying at the same time.
October 11, 2022
By the name I knew it was supposed to be a biased book, and I was ready for some propaganda. I manage to deal with two or three hours of this book, but at some point the guy just says that Kublai Khan and other mongols were just chineses up in an horse, and that these super dangerous chineses almost conquered the entire world, why? Because China has a state called inner mongolia LOL
I will not waste my time with this type of bullshit, will not finish the book
I will not waste my time with this type of bullshit, will not finish the book
December 14, 2023
Mr Mosher, presents an extensive analysis and historical background on China that enables the reader
to comprehend the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party and its relationship to its culture. I hope
analysts in the US diplomatic core have read this book and/or appreciate the desires and aspirations of China and its nationalistic culture!!!
to comprehend the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party and its relationship to its culture. I hope
analysts in the US diplomatic core have read this book and/or appreciate the desires and aspirations of China and its nationalistic culture!!!
June 30, 2022
Outstanding Read
This was a hidden gem of a book.
Extremely timely and important book on world politics.
I found this a fascinating and outstanding read.
One of the better books on China I have read recently.
Would recommend!
4.9/5
This was a hidden gem of a book.
Extremely timely and important book on world politics.
I found this a fascinating and outstanding read.
One of the better books on China I have read recently.
Would recommend!
4.9/5
March 25, 2020
Good but a bit dry!
June 22, 2020
CIA writes a book about China.
February 21, 2022
The writing style was dry and repetitive but I learned a lot of valuable information on Chinese history and strategy. The author doesn't make it easy.
November 6, 2022
Tres hawkish
March 4, 2025
Very one dimensional depiction of a complex country. This book is best characterized as an extended polemic
August 3, 2021
Una mirada crítica a China en la que se habla de su presente y pasado. Ayuda a ver e intuir los intereses expansionistas e imperialistas de China. Libro interesante pero con una perspectiva muy pro-occidental y anti-chino.
December 24, 2020
I don't know how to rate it yet because on one hand there are a lot interesting info but on the other hand I can't trust an author who quotes Peter Navarro and uses Breitbart as a credible source.
Anyway, I recommend this book. It is worth reading. And I think you have to listen to the opinions on both sides.
Anyway, I recommend this book. It is worth reading. And I think you have to listen to the opinions on both sides.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews