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Chaos Under Heaven

Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century

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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The explosive, behind-the-scenes story of Donald Trump’s high-stakes confrontation with Beijing, from an award-winning Washington Post columnist and peerless observer of the U.S.–China relationship
There was no calm before the storm. Donald Trump’s surprise electoral victory shattered the fragile understanding between Washington and Beijing, putting the most important relationship of the twenty-first century in the hands of a novice who had bitterly attacked China from the campaign trail. Almost as soon as he entered office, Trump brought to a boil the long-simmering rivalry between the two countries, while also striking up a “friendship” with Chinese president Xi Jinping — whose manipulations of his American counterpart would undermine the White House’s already disjointed response to the historic challenge of a rising China. All the while, Trump’s own officials fought to steer U.S. policy from within.
By the time the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Wuhan, Trump’s love-hate relationship with Xi had sparked a trade war, while Xi’s aggression had pushed the world to the brink of a new Cold War. But their quarrel had also forced a long-overdue reckoning within the United States over China’s audacious foreign-influence operations, horrific human rights abuses, and creeping digital despotism. Ironically, this awakening was one of the biggest foreign-policy victories of Trump’s fractious term in office.
​Filled with shocking revelations drawn from Josh Rogin’s unparalleled access to top U.S. officials from the White House and deep within the country’s foreign policy machine, Chaos Under Heaven reveals an administration at war with itself during perhaps our most urgent hour.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 29, 2021
      Washington Post columnist Rogin debuts with a deeply reported look at U.S.-China relations during the Trump presidency. Contending that the administration’s instinct to confront China over trade and national security matters was the right one, Rogin details how internal divisions between trade policy adviser Peter Navarro, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, chief of staff John Kelly, and others led to a disjointed, chaotic approach. Rogin also highlights the contrast between Trump’s public hostility toward China and his determined efforts to befriend Chinese leader Xi Jinping, revealing that the two stayed in regular contact, both directly and through intermediaries, even as they traded barbs in the press. Disbelieving that Chinese officials would handle the Covid-19 pandemic with “so much secrecy and misinformation,” White House officials initially resisted deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger’s January call for banning travel from China. Trump eventually enacted the ban over the objections of Mnuchin and chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and during the ensuing months his administration took a harder line against China on a range of issues. Packing the account with insider details, Rogin makes a persuasive case that confronting China’s rise is essential to world affairs. Readers will appreciate this in-depth look behind the headlines.

    • Kirkus

      April 1, 2021
      Breaking down the messy nature of Donald Trump's hard-line China policy and how China took advantage of the relationship. The last four years of the American government's stance regarding China was largely guided by the realization that the prior 40-year experiment of engagement and accommodation was not working. China simply did not want political liberalization, and growing evidence revealed that the Chinese Communist Party was infiltrating many facets of American society, from universities to Silicon Valley to Wall Street. As Washington Post foreign policy columnist Rogin shows in meticulous, depressing detail, even though candidate Trump's aggressive approach effectively called out the authoritarian regime, the administration's "dysfunction and the president's behavior" led to erratic results. From the beginning, Trump loyalists like Jared Kushner--guided by Steve Mnuchin and other "pro-business players"--and Steve Bannon fashioned themselves as China experts. Regarding Bannon, the author writes, "it takes real nerve to lead a populist, anti-China movement when you started as a Goldman Sachs executive--and when you have already made your money in China before turning against the system that made that possible. After he left Goldman, Bannon worked for...a Hong Kong startup...[that] used cheap labor in China to mine virtual goods inside computer games to sell for real-world money." On the other hand, Matthew Pottinger, National Security Council senior director for Asia, managed to craft an intelligible policy and was one of the few who stuck it out for all four years of Trump's presidency. Rogin delineates how, by 2018, hawks like Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence overruled the pro-business faction, leading to the implementation of tariffs and an all-out trade war. The spread of Covid-19, which Trump repeatedly dubbed the "China virus," as well as the violent suppression in Hong Kong ensured that U.S.-China relations reached a low point by the 2020 election. It doesn't make for heartening reading, but Rogin covers it comprehensively. An exhaustive study that leaves open the question of whether the Biden administration can maintain a steadier hand.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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