In the Jaws of the Dragon: America's Fate in the Coming Era of Chinese Dominance

In recent years, popular wisdom has held that opening American markets to Chinese goods was the best way to promote democracy in Beijing—that the Communist Partys grip would quickly weaken as increasingly affluent Chinese citizens embraced American values. That popular wisdom was wrong. As Eamonn Fingleton shows in this devastating book, the culmination of twenty years of research and study, instead of America changing China—i.e., making China more democratic—China is changing America.

While the Chinese peoples rising affluence is, of course, an occasion for wholehearted rejoicing, Uncle Sam should give the Chinese power system a wide berth—lest he catch his coattails in the jaws of a dragon.

In recent years, popular wisdom has held that opening American markets to Chinese goods was the best way to promote democracy in Beijing—that the Communist Partys grip would quickly weaken as increasingly affluent Chinese citizens embraced American values.

That popular wisdom was wrong. As Eamonn Fingleton shows in this devastating book, instead of America changing China, China is changing America. Although this process of reverse convergence has been swept largely under the carpet by knee-jerk globalists in the American press, Americans will soon be hearing much more about it. Nowhere is the pattern more obvious than in business. Many top American corporations—Boeing, AT&T, the Detroit automobile companies, among them—openly collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party. In a stunning rejection of Western values, Yahoo! even provided the Chinese secret police with vital evidence that resulted in a ten-year jail sentence for one of its Chinese subscribers, a brave young dissident, under draconian censorship laws. Selling the American national interest short, countless other corporations abjectly do Beijings lobbying in Congress.

This book—the culmination of twenty years of study—also breaks new ground by revealing the secret behind Chinas phenomenal savings rate. It is reinforced by an Orwellian system of political control that, as Fingleton reveals, utilizes an ancient bureaucratic tool called selective enforcement—a form of blackmail that instills a silent reign of terror throughout Chinese society. Most worryingly, selective enforcement can readily be unleashed on any American corporation with interests in China—which is to say just about every member of the Fortune 500.

“Eamonn Fingleton demonstrates once again why his analyses of modern capitalism deserve serious attention. As he has done before with Japan, he identifies the elements of Chinas business model that depart sharply from easy Western assumptions—and he lays out the consequences of seeing China the way outsiders would like it to be, rather than the way it is.”—James Fallows, Atlantic Monthly

“With capitalism spreading in China, the world expects communism to be swept away by democracy. Eamonn Fingleton expertly shows why it is not to be. This book begins the understanding of the challenge the United States faces from an authoritarian China strengthened by capitalism.”—Former Senator Ernest F. Hollings

"The more heavily that U.S. media conglomerates invest in China, the more vulnerable they become to Chinese pressure to censor their U.S. reportage. As Eamonn Fingleton shows, what we dont know can hurt us. This is a fascinating book with truly unique insights.”—Pat Choate, author of Agents of Influence

“Filling in the missing pieces of the puzzle that is China, Eamonn Fingletons riveting and provocative book is required reading for anyone who cares about the U.S.-China relationship.”—Senator Byron Dorgan, author of Take This Job and Ship It

“Eamonn Fingleton offers a compelling corrective to the naive and often self-interested view of U.S. elites that as China grows more capitalistic, it will necessarily grow more democratic.”—Robert Kuttner, coeditor, The American Prospect

“Fingleton brings his penetrating analytical skills to bear on every dimension of the U.S.-China economic relationship, even the uncomfortable facts that many policymakers prefer to ignore.”—Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur

“Anyone who cares about the future of American industry needs to read this book.”—Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

“One of the most powerful, shocking, well-written, solidly documented, tear-the-scales-from-your-eyes books I've read in more than two decades . . . I couldn't put this book down—at least 100 of its 368 pages are dog eared and highlighted. It's probably the most important book that's ever been written about the figure of our republic.”—Thom Hartmann, host of The Thom Hartmann Program

“America's fate looks dicey in the showdown with the Chinese juggernaut, warns [Fingleton] . . . His economic analysis is incisive.”—Publishers Weekly

In recent years, popular wisdom has held that opening American markets to Chinese goods was the best way to promote democracy in Beijing—that the Communist Partys grip would quickly weaken as increasingly affluent Chinese citizens embraced American values. That popular wisdom was wrong. As Eamonn Fingleton shows in this devastating book, the culmination of twenty years of research and study, instead of America changing China—i.e., making China more democratic—China is changing America.

While the Chinese peoples rising affluence is, of course, an occasion for wholehearted rejoicing, Uncle Sam should give the Chinese power system a wide berth—lest he catch his coattails in the jaws of a dragon.