The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger

by Joseph Solis-Mullen

About The Book

Today the front pages and bookstores are filled with tales of the so-called "China Threat." From spy balloons to Fentanyl pipelines, genocide to dreams of world domination: CHINA! But is it all true? Is any of it? Now, for the first time, the speciousness of these and other contentions are comprehensively tackled and laid bare. The Libertarian Institute's Joseph Solis-Mullen provides a vital rebuttal of every aspect of the China Threat narrative. From its economy and demographics, to its geography, politics, and more, the fake China Threat and its very real danger is a timely and much-needed addition to the public discourse. Taking the reader behind the hyperbole of the headlines, Solis-Mullen provides a realistic picture of China's capabilities, stated aims, and strategic interests - as well as details who is pushing the fake China Threat and why.

Reviews

“Joseph Solis-Mullen has done America a great favor by writing this great book about the hype surrounding the allegedly dangerous rise of Chinese power in the Pacific. It is said that we are in a ‘Thucydides trap’ in which a waning empire must fight a new one rising to challenge it. But China is already an ancient, over-extended empire and the U.S.A. is not supposed to be one in the first place. Solis-Mullen shows that as with America’s previous conflicts over the last generation, this threat is not all it’s cracked up to be.”

—Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute, author of Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism

“In less than 100 pages, Solis-Mullen dismantles the misconceptions surrounding China, offering vital facts and context often overlooked by Americans. By dispelling the dangerous myth of a fabricated China threat, he emerges as a much-needed voice in the effort to prevent a future conflict between two nuclear powers. We need more to join the chorus if we are to avert catastrophe. This book is a must-read for those seeking a better understanding of what may be the most consequential issue of our time.”

—Dave DeCamp, news editor of Antiwar.com and host of Antiwar News

“Joseph Solis-Mullen vividly captures the folly of politicians, pundits, and policymakers who are pushing the United States towards an unnecessary military confrontation with China. Exaggerating the Chinese threat is already spurring idiotic U.S. corporate subsidies and far worse could follow.”

—Jim Bovard, USA Today columnist and Fellow at the Libertarian Institute

“Whenever bipartisan agreement on any topic occurs in Washington, the average citizen should start to worry, or at least carefully scrutinize the facts of the issue. That’s what Joseph Solis-Mullen does in The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger. Members of both parties now compete to turn China into a ten-foot-tall red menace. Because the informal global U.S. Empire can always use an inflated threat to justify its policy of worldwide interventionism, China–with its rapid economic growth and reach, enhanced military capabilities, and increased diplomatic influence—has been eagerly glommed onto by the U.S. military-industrial-congressional-media complex (US MICMC)to replace the Soviet Union, Iraq, al Qaeda, and ISIS as the overweening threat du jour. As during the Cold War and subsequent War on Terror, the threat from China is being exaggerated—this time into a Cold War II, complete with a US-led containment policy. In his succinct, well-written, and thoroughly convincing book, Solis-Mullen incisively debunks the China threat by exploring China’s history, the history of American intervention in Chinese affairs, and China’s substantial, but under-discussed, internal problems and external constraints. Also, instead of the usual jingoist and alarmist hype spewed forth by most American books on the topic, he actually includes the Chinese perspective. Solis-Mullen cogently concludes that a China with growing economic, military, and political power merely wants to have more influence in its immediate environs – instead of global supremacy at U.S. expense. In fact, he argues that the main reason the US MICMC is so concerned about a rising China is not because the Chinese represent a dire threat to the security of the American populace and territory, but because they do pose a real threat to the United States being able to do whatever it wants in East Asia, as has been the case since World War II.”

—Dr. Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute

About the author

Author of The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger, Joseph Solis-Mullen is a political scientist and economist at the Libertarian Institute. A graduate of Spring Arbor University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Missouri, his work can be found at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Libertarian Institute, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Journal of the American Revolution, and Antiwar.com. You can contact him via joseph@libertarianinstitute.org or find him on Twitter @solis_mullen.
Joseph Solis-Mullen

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