SAIS Scholar Mann Publishes New Book On
China
By Felisa Neuringer Klubes SAIS
James Mann,
Foreign Policy Institute author-in-residence at the
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, has
recently published The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders
Explain Away Chinese Repression.
In the book, published by Viking, Mann examines the
evolution of American policy toward China and asks, Does it
make sense? What are Americans' ideas and hidden
assumptions about China?
Exploring China's political evolution and its future,
Mann examines two scenarios popular among the policy elite.
The "Soothing Scenario" contends that the successful spread
of capitalism will gradually bring about a development of
democratic institutions, free elections, independent
judiciary and a progressive human rights policy. In the
"Upheaval Scenario," the contradictions in Chinese society
between rich and poor, cities and the countryside, and the
openness of the economy and the unyielding Leninist system
will eventually lead to a revolution, chaos or collapse.
Against this backdrop, Mann poses a third scenario,
asking, What will happen if Chinese capitalism continues to
evolve and expand, but the government fails to liberalize?
What then, and why should this third scenario matter to
Americans? Mann explores this alternate possibility and
offers a startling vision of our future with China that
would have a profound impact for decades to come.
Mann is the best-selling author of Rise of the
Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, Beijing
Jeep and About Face: A History of America's Curious
Relationship With China From Nixon to Clinton. He was
previously the diplomatic correspondent and foreign affairs
columnist for The Los Angeles Times and served as
the newspaper's Beijing bureau chief from 1984 to 1987. A
member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Mann also has
written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic
and The Washington Post.
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