Customer Reviews

Showdown: Why China Wants War With the United States

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

China is growing in economic power and with that will come a greater desire to become more dominant in world politics and affairs. Along with this will come a greater emphasis on military might to not only protect its internal interests, but to project its power around the world. The United States cannot simply assume that its Superpower status will remain unchallenged. Certainly, other nations have already realigned to "balance" our interests. China has interests, goals, and purposes different from ours and from those of its neighbors. It will insist that its interests influence the course of future events just as we do. How those interests will play out remains to be seen. However, it would be foolish to assume that American interests will carry the day in the future as they have for the past century. China has every right to advance its own goals in the world and we ignore that reality to our disadvantage.

This book is a series of military scenarios that show how China's interests and how the military power they have been building in many areas could play out in key strategic areas such as Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and for oil in the Middle East. The authors show how not only standard military operations of submarines, surface ships, land forces, manned jets, and missiles might be used, but also the effect of cyber warfare including the paralysis that would follow the use of EMP weapons.

I do not believe the authors are trying to predict the future in this book. Nor do I personally believe that war with China is likely or inevitable. However, the stories do make clear the strategic and tactical considerations we must think about as China's power continues to rise. The authors also make clear that China does not have to "win" these conflicts with us in order to advance their purposes and China has shown a wiliness over its history to accept losses if the outcome advances their goals and enhances their future position. Patience is something they understand and apply as a tactic as well as a virtue.

The authors also show how a policy of half-measures and dithering while assuming a powerful competitor is "just like us" and simply wants to talk is a foolish policy for America to take. While we talk, they make off with the goods. The last forty-six pages reprint a government report on China's military growth that was written in 2005. This report is worth the whole book. Everyone should read it and take it seriously

Again, I am not saying China is our enemy and we need to prepare for imminent war. However, they are not our family or friend either. They are a rising power and will soon be a great power in the world. They are likely to have an economy as large as ours or even larger (still smaller per capita) in the decades to come. We simply need to wake up and take a strong approach to the strategic realities they represent in their competition for markets, resources, and influence. This is an interesting book to help the reader see that through stories of hypothetical military conflict.

This book is an eye opener of the first magnitude and so interesting that I finished it the day after it was delivered. The authors, Babbin and Timperlake, use a captivating mixture of fact reporting and fictionalization to produce a strong argument for being prepared for a future war against China. Contrary to some assertions, the facts speak for themselves.

The fact is that China and the United States have an insatiable need for finite oil supplies that, in the near future, will engender competition at best and conflict at worst.

The fact is that China is engaged in a military modernization and buildup program that is unrivaled since Nazi Germany.

The fact is that China has threatened the United States with war if we intervene in their planned annexation of Taiwan.

The fact is that China is developing a wide range of offensive weapons systems, including cyber-warfare and anti-satellite systems.

The fact is that our "allies," in Europe are willing to sell sophisticated weapons systems to the Chinese without regard to the dangers associated with doing so.

This book is well researched and sourced. It clearly distinguishes between the chapters that are non-fiction and those that represent fictionalized accounts of possible conflict scenarios. It is highly readable and enjoyable.

I would also like to point out that, as a former Reagan Republican, I've vehementently disagreed with many policies of the Bush Administration, but oddly enough, their China policy seems reasonably coherent. There is much, however, that remains to be done.

"Showdown" is an unusual book. In between being a well-documented description of China's emergence as a superpower and providing some practical ideas on how to avoid a war, the authors have included a series of fictional chapters describing scenarios of how war with China might erupt, be fought, and end. Though the fiction is as riveting as a Clancy novel (and in much the same style), the results aren't what you'd expect. There's not a lot of good news or chest-thumping over-the-top America can't be beat nonsense. We lose some, we tie some, and only win a couple. It's a terrific read, and a wake-up call as subtle as a bucket of ice water.

I purchased this book and was anxious to read it but I must say I was very disappointed. The book contains an appendix which is just a report issued by the Pentagon to Congress regarding the Chinese military. The report is interesting - but anyone can download it for free from the DOD website. Wasted pages to make the book seem more substantial than it really is.

The various war scenarios with China are very poorly written and somewhat juvenile. Imagine a bad made-for-TV movie and you will get a good idea of what this book is like.

People can debate about whether or not China really wants war with the United States, but this book is not the one to start the discussion.

Don't waste your time on this one!

There's an old saying that predicting the future is difficult, but being right is hard. This book is an attempt to predict one future. It's an excellent read, a combination of fictional senarios with observed data. It's the conclusion he comes to that is rather hard to swallow.

The sub-title of the book says: 'Why China Wants War with the United States.' I'm afraid that I don't believe this. Sure, China has some foreign poilicy ambitions. They is going to be friction between the US and China. But a full fledged war, I think unlikely.

The first senario, for instance, is what would be the real result of China's attempt to take over Taiwan by military force. Would the US really go to a major war over Taiwan? What if the Taiwanese government decides that they want to join China, there is already a movement in Taiwan to do that?

One of the things he forsees is an 'unholy alliance between Communist China and radical Islam. This I kind of doubt also. Under the Cultural Revolution under the pretext of unification of national education, Islamic schools were closed and their students transferred to other schools which taught only Marxism and Maoism. Other outrages included the closing of over 29,000 mosques, the widespread torture of imams, and executions of over 360,000 Muslims. I don't see the radical Islamic people quite so easy to forgive and forget and to enter an alliance.

Very interesting reading, but a big time war, I don't think so. I hope we are smart enough to not get involved with a land war in China. And they don't have the blue water navy capable of doing much to us.

This book is a must-read for anyone who is involved in foreign policy or international trade, or anyone who just wants to know the truth. China is not just a country of silk and fortune cookies, nor is it merely an economic competitor entering the "flat world" of Thomas Friedman. It is the world's most populous nation, with a command economy and a despotic leadership that will use every means, fair and foul, to advance what it perceives as its national interest. Foremost among those interests are the assimilation of Taiwan and the securing of oil and other industrial resources.
The authors lay out several scenarios for military conflict that, at first, seem highly implausible. On further reflection, and in light of the statistics the authors provide on the Chinese military build-up, these scenarios must be viewed as quite possible. The conclusion is inescapable that the US and China are on a collison course over Taiwan, oil, and, as the Chinese would phrase it, world hegemony. We cannot hide our heads in the sand, but will have to learn to deal with China's ascendancy in starkly realistic terms.

There shall always exist the possibility of these seemingly prophetic works to forecast actual events.
The first two and last two chapters feature excellent and thorough analysis that can stand alone as five star reads. This book also contains valuable appendices.
For the rest, Babbin and Timperlake have made thoughtful considerations of scenarios involving the U.S. and China in fictional conflicts via various bumbling and incompetent third parties.
In 1925 a man named Hector Bywater wrote a novel, "The Great Pacific War: A History of the American-Japanese Campaign of 1931-1933, Vol. 1." In it, he foretold of an American war that began with an attack by Japan upon Pearl Harbor.
Strategists, both military and civilian had considered the possibility for years before it occurred, but sadly, after decades of nay-saying critics, no one seemed to remember it by December 6, 1941.
Like the Bywater book, America generally succeeds in the fictional scenarios in "Showdown," but one might question the competence or lack thereof of the various non-fictional leaders in the stories. I certainly hope leaders like Kim Jung Il, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are as incompetent but not as stupid as the authors hypothesize.
This past September's National Geographic featured an insightful look at China pertinent to this book. Specifically, focusing on the resurgence of the Manchurian region's industrial capability. It is interesting to note that Western investments fuel Manchuria's conversion of derelict arms factories into makers of "peaceful" goods. In an interesting post script to "Showdown," it is obvious little effort would be needed to revert these facilities back into arms production on the West`s dime.
The book is blatantly and unrepentantly partisan. It is after all, "A MAIN SELECTION OF THE CONSEVATIVE BOOK CLUB." This being said, read with a grain of salt, but certainly read it regardless of your leanings.
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, EVERY AUTHOR DESERVES YOUR OPINION IF YOU TAKE THE TIME TO POST IT!

Babbin and Timberlake are intellectual lightweights if one is to judge them by this book. Their basis for an inevitable war with China is very shaky. They cite China's military buildup, the ongoing Taiwan crisis, possible future worldwide energy shortages, and even high testostorone levels in unmarried Chinese men as evidence of this future war. But when the reasons given are analyzed individually, one has to realize that this book fails miserably in it's goal to convince the reader of an inevitable US-China war.

Babbin cites China's military buildup over the past 10-15 years as an alarming sign that China wants war. What is even more alarming to him is that many of the weapons China is developing or seeking are "offensive" instead of "defensive" weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles. But what Babbin simply ignores is the fact that any poor nation that is expanding economically will also naturally upgrade their military as well. There is nothing strage about China's military build-up. We may not like it, but it can't be taken as a clear sign of aggresion. Secondly, what Babbin identifies as "offensive" weapons is false. A weapon is "offensive" or "defensive" only depending on how it's used. Even the U.S military has scores of "offensive" weapons which any general in the military will tell you are essential to defending the U.S.

The Taiwan crisis is also cited as something that may inevitably lead to war. But why jump to this conclusion? There are many crises around the world and the large majority don't lead inevitably to war. The Taiwan situation will not either. Because the current White House has pledged that it will defend Taiwan if China attacks, China will under no circumstance invite full-scale war with the U.S and risk setting China back 30 years in it's economic development.

Babbin's superficial treatment of the subject again shows through when discussing future energy shortages which may lead to a U.S-China war. He makes no mention of energy resource statistics, no mention of world-wide reserves, and no mention of how alternative fuels may change the energy scenarios in the future. He simply ignores all these relevant data in order to make his point.

The most ludicrous and laughable premise for war is the female shortage in China which leave many young men with no outlet for their sexual desires. Babbin asserts that these high testostorone levels in Chinese men will make them more aggresive toward the U.S. Nevermind the fact that China is a Communist nation with a ruling elite and that elite has no trouble at all finding suitable wives. I ask Babbin: Who makes military decisions in China, the poor farmer who can't find a wife or the ruling elites who have their pick of the women of the land?

Another terribly annoying thing about this book is that it doesn't address the main obstacle to a U.S-China war: ECONOMICS. The fact is that China and the U.S are so economically connected that a war will devastate both countries and therefore both countries will avoid war with each other at all costs. The only time this subject is touched upon is in a passing comment of how China also has trade with other nations and it won't be so bad for them. Again, no statistics, no data to back up his assertions.

This book was highly recommended by conservative talk show hosts I listen to like Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, etc... I am terribly disappointed with this book and hope these hosts are more selective in the authors they endorse.

Unquestionably, China has emerged as an economic power - but without any change in its political leadership's hegemony or repression of political freedoms. The Communist-Left Wing government (for those who want to call their economics `greedy capitalism', please notice that there are no dissident millionaires) continually represses its people and is faced with a demographic timebomb. I explore a number of these issues in my forthcoming novel, "Stealing Thunder". The PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy) is growing to become a blue water navy rather than the coastal defence force that it has been. China increasingly asserts itself in the oil rich regions of the Senkaku Islands and the South China Sea.

The United States has fought more wars in Asia than in Europe - Box Rebellion, Phillipines, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, etc., The United States is a nation that relies upon the freedom of the seas - which China wishes to dominate in Asia. And not only that, but they are buying influence in South America. They are threatening a free democracy - Taiwan. And they are testing the waters with Japan by breaching Japan's territorial waters with their submarines. And using their proxy North Korea to provoke both Japan, South Korea and the U.S. The United States and China will come into conflict in the future over resources and influence. But when? Babbin's book provides a solid introduction.

Michael Mandaville, Author "Stealing Thunder"

This past Christmas morning my husband and I jokingly researched every item we purchased for each other and our toddler to see where the product was made. Ninety-nine percent of all items were "Made in China." No matter how you try and sugar-coat it China is already cleaning our clocks! Why did I enjoy "Showdown?" Because it offers the reader a review of the current Chinese leadership, how their actions speak louder than words, and a possible game plan in the next 10 to twenty years. Let's face it - there isn't enough copper in the world to wire China for computers and other communication technology. Their sizable population and appetite for fossil fuels will naturally force China's nefarious regime to stretch beyond its borders to gobble up energy, technology, and short cuts to keep the red dragon - one billion plus people - fed. It is not a conservative or liberal challenge but rather simple economics.