Description: From one of the most prominent post-Cold War geopolitics experts and "a grand strategist to whom the Pentagon turns" (The Wall Street Journal), a probing and insight-filled look at the China experts who have influenced--and continue to influence--America's policy toward its greatest rival.
No country or civilization is as big or as old as China. And in the minds of Americans whose job it is to contemplate international affairs, China has always been more than just the "ultimate place" quite simply, it is the essential foreign policy challenge--one frequently thought incapable of being solved. Enter the China Whisperers: American missionaries, travelers, journalists, linguists, and foreign service officers who, going back a hundred years, have been on the ground, fluent in Mandarin, and enamored of the culture. In the early and mid-20th century, these were the true China experts of the Western world. Some proved unwitting dupes, others showed their brilliance. What lured them to that distant nation? With its deep history and unstable present, China was something Americans could use both to fill their dreams and measure their own young nation directly against. To this cohort of Americans, it seemed possible for outsiders like themselves to shape China and its destiny. And over a period of a few transformative decades they had front-row seats to the formation of both the Nationalist and Communist parties; crossed the Gobi Desert; searched out the young Mao Zedong in the wilds of Yen'an province; provided visionary analysis on the American predicament in Asia; bore witness to China's World War II; and made invaluable contributions to journalism and diplomacy. But the China Whisperers may have gotten too close to the story. Washington rejected their counsel when they contradicted reigning ideology, and, tragically, these ground-level experts offered advice that was often ignored. The ranks of China Whisperers have been filled in recent years not so much by nomadic journalists and explorers as by multi-lingual policy experts who've had the ear of the person occupying the Oval Office. Often, their voices have proved critical, counseling engagement over precipitous moves. China Whisperers is the story of how Americans both have succeeded and failed to interpret China over the past century. It paints a full-bodied portrait of the drama of trying to understand a radically different and age-old culture--one whose rivalry with America constitutes the most dangerous element of geopolitics.Brief description: Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty-four books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including China Whisperers, Waste Land, The Loom of Time, The Tragic Mind, The Revenge of Geography, Asia's Cauldron, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts. For three decades he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He is a distinguished senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and the US Navy's Executive Panel. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world's "Top 100 Global Thinkers."
Review Quotes: "DEEPLY REWARDING. Robert Kaplan has found a fascinating way to understand China, our mysterious and fearsome rival. He takes us into the lives, hearts, and minds of the 'China whisperers, ' Americans who tried to make sense of China over the past century. Kaplan is a wonderful writer, lively and perceptive."
--Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Road to Surrender and coauthor of The Wise Men
--Chris Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology "WELL-INFORMED HISTORY...At a moment when the risk of US-China miscalculation is particularly high, China Whisperers shows that deep expertise is a strategic necessity."
--Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Crisis "A BOOK EVERY CHINA WATCHER SHOULD READ. Why does America think the way it does about China, its most important competitor? Robert Kaplan's compelling book answers that question by telling the stories of an intriguing collection of writers, soldiers, and dreamers who have shaped what has become the key U.S. relationship--the one with Beijing."
--John Pomfret, award-winning author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present "FASCINATING, ENTERTAINING, AND INSIGHTFUL. This book reflects the authorial verve, on-the-ground reporting, and deep reading in musty volumes that are characteristic of Kaplan's work....A stark warning about the frustrations of communicating findings to the people in power."
--Max Boot, New York Times bestselling author of Reagan: His Life and Legend "SOBERING AND TIMELY. This beautifully written book is about expertise. Strikingly, the most knowledgeable observers are the most fearful about the US and China stumbling into war."
--Valerie Hansen, Professor of History, Yale University, and author of The Year 1000