Table Of Content“If you want to understand the threat from Communist China, read this book.
It is the most insightful study of the sinister nature of the Chinese Communist
Party and its ideology by scholars outside of China I have ever seen. Perhaps most
importantly, if you want to know who Xi Jinping really is, how he thinks, why he
behaves as he does, and the malicious plans he has for China and the world, as well
as how the U.S. and the free world can stop him, this book is an essential read.”
Cai Xia, former Professor at the Central Party School of the
Chinese Communist Party
“Understanding the China Threat by Lianchao Han and Bradley Thayer is the most
important book that I have ever read about the existential threat from the People’s
Republic of China (PRC). These two experts present a clear and compelling
assessment of the Chinese Communist Party’s ideological threat that remains
unchanged since Mao, whose goal is to replace the United States as the world
hegemon and rule by totalitarian force. This book is a clarion call for America and
as someone who has devoted a lifetime to fighting the ideology of communism,
I strongly encourage you to read this book and share widely, especially with our
younger generations who have little knowledge or understanding of the threat of
communism, especially Chinese communism. As the authors note, the threat is
grave, but America can overcome our weak position and defeat the evils of the
PRC by a return to our founding principles.”
James E. Fanell, CAPT USN (Retired), former Director
of Intelligence and Information Operations U.S. Pacific Fleet
“Lianchao Han and Bradley A. Thayer have written an exceptional book docu-
menting why China is the global threat to U.S. interests today and for decades to
come. Han and Thayer demonstrate why China’s unparalleled expansion of their
conventional and nuclear arsenals, employment of economic and ideological war-
fare, and penetration of Western societies are the deliberate result of the Chinese
Communist Party’s bid for domination. Their recommendations concerning the
U.S. and allied response to the China threat should be heeded by U.S. national
security decision-makers.”
Admiral Cecil Haney, United States Navy (Retired),
former Commander, United States Strategic Command
“On three occasions, the United States has faced an existential threat: from Great
Britain in the Revolution, from the expansionist Nazi Germany, and from the
nuclear arms of the Soviet Union. But this new threat, from China, is quite unlike
anything America has faced before: it is ideological, commercial, diplomatic, and
military and on an unprecedented scale. This brilliant book is chilling, but it also
offers hope. It charts the brutal politics of Xi Jinping’s emerging new world order,
but shows precisely how the US can survive the onslaught, and win.”
Dr. Rob Johnson, Director of the Changing Character of
War Centre, University of Oxford
“Understanding the China Threat is the single most important and useful guide to the
central threat facing the United States. Han and Thayer offer a sober and clear-
eyed assessment of what the rise of China means for the future of this country. This
is real-world intelligence that will be mission-critical for policymakers, citizens
and CEOs for years to come.”
Brian T. Kennedy, Chairman of the Committee on
the Present Danger: China and President, The American
Strategy Group
“In their latest work, Han and Thayer slay the canard that ideas don’t matter—that
unlike the Soviet challenge, Beijing doesn’t mean to export a world-changing
ideology. As the American and Chinese economies were purblindly intertwined,
America itself came to question its birthright of freedom, perhaps uncoinciden-
tally. Understanding the China Threat is a just-in-time dispatch on the ‘People’s
Republic’ and its baleful captain of the ship, Xi Jinping.”
Curt Mills, Analyst at Thiel Macro hedge fund and
Contributing Editor of The American Conservative
“For anyone seeking to understand the grave threat posed by China, this book is
both authoritative and insightful. Lianchao Han and Bradley Thayer are realistic
about the China threat and the West would do well to heed the warning that is
found in the pages of this critically important volume.”
Dr. Katrina Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation
and former Chair of the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom
“Tracing the origins of Xi Jinping’s totalitarian state to the foundations of ideo-
logical indoctrination, terror, and adulation of a god-like Emperor figure, laid by
Mao in 1942–45 in the too-rarely mentioned ‘rectification campaign,’ a large-scale
purge of those whose loyalty to Mao was suspect—conducted while the Americans
and the Chinese nationalists were busy fighting the Japanese—the authors show
how those foundations make today’s People’s Republic such a great menace to
Americans and the world. Yet those foundations also create the regime’s great
vulnerabilities.
Written in a style that is both scholarly and also highly accessible, this book
should be helpful for the growing audience of lay readers who have come to be
skeptical of rosy myths about Communist China, probably the most dangerous
adversary we have faced in the last two hundred years.”
Ambassador Paul Wolfowitz, a Senior Fellow at the
American Enterprise Institute, and Distinguished Visiting
Fellow at the Hoover Institution, is a former President of the
World Bank, Ambassador to Indonesia, Assistant Secretary
of State for East Asia and the Pacific, and U.S. Deputy
Secretary of Defense
UNDERSTANDING THE
CHINA THREAT
This book examines the contours of the Sino-American confrontation and its
future trajectories. It delineates the two major causes of the friction in Sino-
American relations—change in the balance of power in China’s favor and the
conflicting ideologies of the two states—and emphasizes why it is imperative
for the U.S. to hold on to its ideological principles. It demonstrates the ultimate
and irreconcilable gap in the visions the two competitors have for international
politics and consequently why conflict—certainly cold, and very possibly hot—
is inevitable. The authors also suggest measures which the U.S. can adopt to
sustain its leadership and deter China’s ideology and vision for the future of
global politics.
A significant contribution to the study of Sino-American relations, the
volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of international relations,
foreign policy, and U.S. and Chinese politics. It will be of great interest to think
tanks, public policy professionals, and the interested general reader.
Lianchao Han, Ph.D., Vice President, Citizen Power Initiatives for China.
Bradley A. Thayer, Ph.D., Director of Research, Citizen Power Initiatives for
China.
UNDERSTANDING
THE CHINA THREAT
Lianchao Han and Bradley A. Thayer
Cover image: Chinese President Xi Addresses the Opening Session of
the U.S.-China Strategic Dialogue in Beijing. Image from Wikimedia
Commons. Provided by the U.S. Department of State. Public Domain.
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Lianchao Han and Bradley A. Thayer
The right of Lianchao Han and Bradley A. Thayer to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Han, Lianchao, author. | Thayer, Bradley A., author.
Title: Understanding the China threat / Lianchao Han and
Bradley A. Thayer.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022021470 (print) | LCCN 2022021471 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032110837 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032255071 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003283614 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States--Foreign relations--China. | China--
Foreign relations--United States. | United States--Foreign relations--
21st century. | China--Foreign relations--21st century.
Classification: LCC E183.8.C5 H1855 2022 (print) | LCC E183.8.C5
(ebook) | DDC 327.73051--dc23/eng/20220608
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022021470
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022021471
ISBN: 978-1-032-11083-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-25507-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28361-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003283614
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
For my mother, a disillusioned Chinese Communist who inspired me to
oppose any form of totalitarianism.
Lianchao Han
For Eike
Bradley A. Thayer
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments x
1 Introduction 1
2 The Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party: Its Innate
Aggression Will Cause Conflict with the United States 17
3 Xi and the Xi Doctrine 74
4 China’s Growing Relative Power 148
5 Meeting the Challenge 163
6 Conclusions 187
Index 199
