Breaking the Engagement: How China Won & Lost America

An internationally recognized scholar provides a powerful explanation of the Breaking the Engagement: How China Won & Lost America between the United States and China. For over five decades following the 1972 rapprochement between the United States and China, the two countries seemed to be steadily building a sound relationship, even accounting for periodic setbacks like the Tiananmen Square massacre. The last decade, though, has seen a sharp increase in tensions and a complete reorientation of American policies toward ChinaDLfrom "engagement" to "competition." What happened? In Breaking the Engagement: How China Won & Lost America, esteemed scholar David Shambaugh examines the evolution, expansion, and disintegration of the American engagement strategy towards China. Shambaugh attributes the recent sharp deterioration of relations to a combination of China's actions and American expectations. Xi Jinping's increasingly assertive foreign policy and domestic repression has directly challenged American interests. More deeply, he argues that the real underlying cause is America's longstanding paternalistic approach to transform China into a liberal state and society which conforms with the US-led global liberal order. When China has generally evolved in this directionDL politically, economically, socially, intellectually, and internationallyDLit corresponds with American aspirations and the two could cooperate. But when Beijing pushes back against this transformative strategyDLwhich Beijing sees as subversionDLAmericans become disillusioned and U.S. policymakers see China as a malign regime, which must be countered. By focusing on the role of perceptions and U.S. expectations in fueling the shift towards competition and rivalry in the last decade, Shambaugh provides a unique new perspective on this critical global relationship.

Table of Contents:
Dedication Acknowledgements Preface 1. Introduction: Elusive Equilibrium 2. The Strategy and Tactics of Engagement 3. The Genesis of the Engagement Coalition 4. The Evolution of the Engagement Coalition After Normalization 5. From Engagement to Strategic Competition 6. Inside the Beltway: The US Government 7. Outside the Beltway: Non-Governmental Actors 8. The Great American China Policy Debate 9. Conclusion: Towards a New China Strategy Appendix: China Interprets American Engagement and Post-Engagement Endnotes Index

About the Author :
David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized scholar and award winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. An active public intellectual and educator, he serves on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, and investment funds. He is currently the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, and International Affairs at George Washington University,and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He previously was Reader in Chinese Politics at the University of London's School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), where he also served as Editor of the prestigious journal The China Quarterly.

Review :
This is the book we have all been waiting for: the definitive history of the sea change in American policy toward China during the past half century from engagement to competitive rivalry. Shambaugh's book is objective, detailed, and valuable reading for everyone worried about the future of US-China relations. The U.S. sees China as the pacing challenge in our strategic competition. But China is also a puzzle. Why did our strategy of Engagement fail? No one is better placed to solve this puzzle than David Shambaugh in this well-informed and very readable account. Anyone interested in our great power competition with China must read this book. This monumental tour d'horizon of the rise and fall of Engagement gives readers a vivid sense of how radically US-China relations have changed over the last decade. By artfully parsing the forces that have rendered the US-China relationship so fraught, Shambaugh helps us understand the complexity and challenges that Xi Jinping's China presents to the United States. One of the best books available on American China policy. David Shambaugh is one of today's most respected and influential thinkers on China. His decades of research, teaching and leadership in the field make for an unparalleled dive into the development and fracturing of the world's most important bilateral relationship. If understanding our past reveals much about our future, then this brilliant analysis should be considered required reading in understanding one of history's most consequential geopolitical megatrends. David Shambaugh's Breaking the Engagement is a must-read for anyone interested in U.S.-China relations, how we got here, and what the United States needs to do to gird itself for the coming China shocks. It is fact-filled, accessible, and lays out a plan of action that is doable and smart. Few American scholars have a better understanding of China than Mr. Shambaugh. So when the George Washington University professor tells us that the official U.S. strategy of engagement with Beijing is dead-'D-E-A-D'-we had better pay attention. "Shambaugh's book is a valuable survey of the history of U.S. engagement with Beijing and the subsequent-and ongoing-China policy debate. ...brilliant and timely... Required reading for the new Cold War. Required reading for the new Cold War. In this deeply researched book, Shambaugh provides persuasive solutions to two enduring puzzles in the relationship between China and the United States. Shambaugh's research also yields an important and more counterintuitive finding: too much engagement breeds suspicion, disenchantment, and eventually disengagement. The book is further enlivened with a rich collection of anecdotes from Shambaugh's own history of ups and downs in dealing with China as a student, scholar, and policy adviser. In this deeply researched book, Shambaugh provides persuasive solutions to two enduring puzzles in the relationship between China and the United States: What explains the more than century-long oscillating pattern of engagement, disenchantment, and reengagement in U.S.-Chinese relations? And why, after four decades of deepening engagement, do the two countries find themselves in a period of disengagement and rivalry? A valuable contribution to the history of U.S.-China relations, reflecting deep knowledge of the subject and extensive research.