"Americans need not be hostile toward China's rise, but they should be wary about its eventual effects. The United States is the only nation with the scale and power to try to set the terms of its interaction with China rather than just succumb. So starting now, Americans need to consider the economic, environmental, political, and social goals they care about defending as Chinese influence grows."
--from "China Makes, the World Takes"
Since December 2006, "The Atlantic Magazine"'s James Fallows has been writing some of the most discerning accounts of the economic and political transformation occurring in China. The ten essays collected here cover a wide-range of topics: from visionary tycoons and TV-battling entrepreneurs, to environmental pollution and how China subsidizes our economy. Fallows expertly and lucidly explains the economic, political, social, and cultural forces at work turning China into a world superpower at breakneck speed. This eye-opening and cautionary account is essential reading for all concerned not only with China's but America's future role in the world.
Industry Reviews
"In a series of sharply observed essays, James Fallows gives us a top-notch primer on contemporary China. Wisely eschewing the easy view from Beijing, he takes us to the factories and export zones that have turned China into an economic powerhouse, the fantasy world of a megalomaniacal Chinese robber baron and the nether world of the Internet police. His lucid writing makes these topics not only understandable but a pleasure to explore. I would unreservedly recommend this book to anyone interested in a fresh perspective on what remains the most remarkable rise of a country in a century."
--Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of" Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China"
"Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to notice important features of a familiar landscape. In twelve delightful essays, James Fallows draws on his long experience as an observer of Asian society and culture to explore some of the deepest enigmas of post-reform China. With humanist sensitivities and a reporter's instincts, he peers behind the headlines in search of the human factor in China's rise to global prominence. The result is a thoughtful, incisive look at the interior workings of a society on the make--and a very good read to boot."
--Richard Baum, Professor of Political Science, UCLA; Director Emeritus, UCLA Center for Chinese Studies; and author of" China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom"
"Dispatches from" Atlantic Monthly" national correspondent Fallows ("Blind Into Baghdad: America's War in Iraq," 2006, etc.) capture with clarity and humor the present and future of the country that could be the next world superpower. . . . Neither alarmist nor apologist, one of the clearest and most enjoyable accounts of China currently available."
--"Kirkus Reviews"
"I devoured""Postcards from Tomorrow Square on a return flight from Shanghai, and it was the perfect travel companion. Not only did James Fallows make me rethink my own recent experien
