Haunted by Chaos

Title: Haunted by Chaos – China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping

Author: Sulmaan Wasif Khan

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2018 (First)

ISBN: 9780674987760

Pages: 320

China is now the world's second superpower that harbours a clear ambition and an action plan to be the first in a few decades. But the political system of China is fundamentally different from that of the United States, whom it wishes to supplant. Civic liberties are unheard of in China, and the Communist Party has been immensely successful in shielding its people from the radars of the ubiquitous communication devices offered by technology. All major social media sites such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China. Fear of social chaos is what drives the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the state to curtail personal freedom. The country has been under the rule of puppet kings, warlords and rival party factions for a long time in the last two centuries. Even the much fabled celestial kingdom was not entirely free from the threatening forces of Central Asia, Mongolia and the Manchus. All this made the state paranoid about the safety and integrity of the country. Stability was gained only in 1949 when the CCP drove the Guomindang across the straits of Taiwan to hold sway over the entire mainland. Even then the party was always awake to the threat from within and without. Its rulers adopted a Grand Strategy in dealing with other nations. They considered economic well-being as the prime factor that guaranteed the stability of the state. This required trade with foreign partners. China was willing to strike a deal with neighbours even when a persistent dispute over a border territory or an island in the sea stood unresolved. This was put in place by politicians who were not men of the staff colleges or management institutes. Theirs was a peasant’s wisdom, a sense of where they wanted to wind up and how. There was no overall master plan and there were instances when human emotions bypassed strategy, ending in failure. China geared up military power, diplomacy, economic planning and domestic policy towards long term interests. This is neatly chronicled by Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who is an assistant professor of international history and Chinese foreign relations at the Fletcher school at Tufts University. Even though I searched hard on the Internet, his nationality could not be ascertained.

This book looks into the reigns of all the leaders of modern China such as Mao, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping. However, the first two were responsible for consolidating political power and unleashing its economic potential respectively. All the others have been content to maintain their hold on the rudder and lead China safely through the vortices and rocks of international trade and commerce. The present incumbent Xi Jinping shows signs of greater aspirations and a longer stay at the helm as seen by acts such as engraving Xi Jinping Thought as a guiding principle of China on the lines of Mao Zedong Thought. Only time can tell how far he would succeed in this venture. It cannot be denied that the country was glued together by the pragmatic streak exhibited by Mao when he maintained room for compromise in his deals with rivals although it was left unwritten and informal. He allowed a mild form of capitalism under the euphemism of democratic economy.

Mao, who can be legitimately termed the father of modern China, employed a grand strategy of the judicious use of force, diplomatic outreach and appropriate management of political economy to annex territories outside his control such as Tibet and Xinjiang where the clout of the Han community was minimal. On the external front, he put forward the famous five principles of foreign policy for peaceful coexistence that included mutual respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual noninterference, mutual equality and benefit, non-aggression and peaceful coexistence. However, when an opportunity knocked on the door, these principles did not hinder Mao in waging a war with India on an arcane border dispute and forcibly annex its territory. China's plan was to limit threats to national security by maintaining as many friendly relations as possible. He was not averse to open up trade relations even with the US, if it stopped backing the breakaway state of Taiwan. All in all, Mao has been successful in keeping the state whole and establishing a balance of power with external parties, even though his failed campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward resulted in manmade famines in which 40 million people perished.

While Mao was a master of political theory, it was his successor Deng Xiaoping who steered the economy and the people to prosperity. Instability was the one thing that Deng wished to avoid at all costs. Instability could tip into chaos at which point all hopes of modernization would die. His firm belief was that the economy was the final guarantor of national security, and continued the established foreign policy that insisted on overall amicable relationship with a foreign partner even when differences on specific issues continued to plague the relations occasionally. This strategy found its expression in the islands of the East and South China Seas which is contested between China, all other Southeast Asian nations and Japan. The festering territorial disputes did not hinder China in striking up lasting business ties with those countries. Deng’s realistic approach harmoniously solved the issues connected with the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control after the 99-year British lease came to an end in 1997. Hong Kong was the epitome of Western capitalist economy and democracy. It was expected that Hong Kong’s financial supremacy would be irrevocably lost when it came under China’s archaic socialist philosophy. Deng stole the wind out of his detractors’ sails with the idea of ‘One Country, Two Systems’. With this, he could foist capitalism in the island, while holding on to socialism in the mainland. There have been protests brewing in the erstwhile British enclave as its free people could not digest the Chinese state’s maxim of guaranteeing economic benefits, even if uneven, in exchange of political obedience.

The book is neatly written in a crisp style and encapsulates the history of the nation from the Second World War. The author credits Mao with far greater insight and pragmatism than merited by facts and takes great pains to stay clear of controversy when recent events are described. His stunning achievement is in identifying the unbroken thread of China's Grand Strategy from the times of Mao to Xi Jinping. At the same time, Khan also showcases the instances in which it veered wildly from the strategy when nationalist sentiments of the leaders came into play in foreign policy. These are displayed by China's humiliating defeat at the hands of Vietnamese forces in the brief war of 1979 and the Taiwan missile crisis of 1996. When all aspects and arguments of the book are taken into account, the ineluctable conclusion one reaches is that Wasif Khan has made a good job in the face of great odds.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star