How China Loses

From its Belt and Road Initiative linking Asia and Europe, to its “Made in China 2025” strategy to dominate high-tech industries, to its significant economic reach into Africa and Latin America, China is rapidly expanding its influence around the globe. But despite all these strengths, a future with China in charge is far from certain.  

In HOW CHINA LOSES: The Pushback against Chinese Global Ambitions, Luke Patey argues that China’s predatory economic agenda, headstrong diplomacy, and military expansion undermine its ambitions to dominate the global economy and world affairs. He shows that countries around the world —rich and poor, big and small—are pushing back and recognizing that engaging China produces new strategic vulnerabilities to their independence and competitiveness. 

HOW CHINA LOSES reframes the conversation by avoiding a fixation on U.S. versus Chinese competition and by challenging the idea that the world is headed toward a West versus Asia divide. Instead, Patey takes readers to Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and Europe and documents his encounters with activists, business managers, diplomats, and thinkers to reveal the global challenges threatening to ground China's rising power. Politicians and environmentalists are upending plans for roads and railways in Southeast Asia and Latin America; conflicts in Africa and South Asia threaten Chinese investments; European democracies are fighting back against political interference; and Japan, India, and other Asian neighbors are resisting China’s hegemonic aims. As Patey shows, China faces significant hurdles to reaching its global aspirations and nations big and small will help shape the twenty-first century in pushing back against China’s overreach and domineering behavior.

Learn more about HOW CHINA LOSES in this ChinaPower podcast, Luke Patey's interview with The Diplomat or in his recent op-ed in Foreign Policy.

Order the book here.

Reviews:

“Timely and thought-provoking”

—Financial Times

 “These valuable books focus on the many forms of resistance that China is encountering as its influence expands.”

—Foreign Affairs

 “A welcome contribution to the discussion of China, and China’s role, in the international order.”

—Diplomatic Courier

“A fascinating analysis of how China, under Xi Jinping, has turned into its own worst enemy. This is essential reading for those wishing to understand the boomerang effect from Xi’s overreach.”

—Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies, Center for Policy Research

“Timely and important, this is, in a way, a book about what not to do for a nation to manage its hard power in foreign affairs. Today we are fixated with trade wars and geopolitical conflicts between China and the US, but this book tells us that there is another wave of conflicts emerging from the horizon—those between China and countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is a sobering read and it should be recommended to all those who are students of China and of world affairs.”

—Yasheng Huang, Epoch Foundation Professor of International Management, MIT Sloan School of Management

“How does the growing rivalry between the US and China play out in the rest of the world? Patey has traveled to Africa, Latin America, and Europe to ask both Chinese and locals about the ups and downs of their evolving relationship. He offers a detailed and compelling ground-eye view of the complications China faces as it takes on its new and global role.This is invaluable reading for anyone trying to understand China’s power projection—where it succeeds and how it falls short.”

—Lucy Hornby, China Correspondent, Financial Times

“In this COVID-and-after era, there is a pressing need for informed correctives to the propaganda of Chinese triumphalism or the illusion that America can somehow lead the global order back to business as usual. Patey’s How China Loses is the kind of intellectual medicine the world requires—a comprehensive account of Beijing’s overreach, and how middle powers in Europe and elsewhere can push back to find a settling point.”

—Rory Medcalf, Professor, National Security College, Australian National University, and author of Indo-Pacific Empire

“Citing the diplomatic and international relations experiences of several nations in their engagement with China, Patey argues importantly why and how they should push back against ways in which China is trying to reshape the world.”

—George Magnus, Associate, Oxford University China Centre; Research Associate, SOAS London; and author of Red Flags: Why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy