How to Counter China’s Great Game
BOOK REVIEW: Countering China’s Great Game, a Strategy for American Dominance
By Michael S. Sobolik / Naval Institute Press
Reviewed by: Robert J. Eatinger, Jr.
The Reviewer —Robert Eatinger is a former Senior Deputy General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency and a retired Captain in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps with 30 years of combined active and reserve service. He is now in private law practice.
REVIEW — What is China’s great game? Michael S. Sobolik, a Senior Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council and former Hill staffer, says it is China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), the Chinese Community Party’s (CCP) foreign policy project to weaken the United States, shift global leadership to China, and remake the world order away from libertarian principals to authoritarianism. In his book, Countering China’s Great Game, a Strategy for American Dominance, Sobolik says if America is to counter this great game, the country must realize the foreign policies and activities of the 75-year-old communist China are based on the same core values as those held during the millennia of imperial China. The BRI, then, must have the expansion of the Chinese “empire” as its ultimate purpose.
Sobolik uses six numbered chapters sandwiched between an introduction and conclusion to present his case in a well-organized, educational manner. He begins by telling the reader the purpose of his book—what we are going to learn. He then explains how he will present his topic by identifying the concept or subject matter he will cover in each of the numbered chapters. The first three chapters provide the historical and cultural groundwork to support the view that imperial China continues in all but name. Sobolik uses the final three chapters to explain, in his view, how the United States can counter China. His summary weaves in substance and key takeaways presented in the book.
Sobolik tells us that China is “an ancient empire that has always played by its own rules.” He demonstrates that for thousands of years, the Chinese have considered their civilization to be superior to all others and China to be the center of the world. From these beliefs, China sees itself as having authority over “all under heaven” and an almost religious duty to spread its cultural values. The CCP has not abandoned these beliefs. As Sobolik puts it, “Beijing is approaching the world not to embrace it, but to rule it.” “Xi,” he says, “wants China to dominate the world.”
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The CCP sees the United States as its primary obstacle to China’s expansionist goals. China’s strategic reason for its BRI, then, is to weaken the United States by tilting the global economy away from the United States towards China (and making more countries’ dependent on or beholden to China). The BRI is “the CCP’s ‘great game’” to defeat the United States without going to war. Sobolik warns, “the CCP is playing for keeps, and they are coming after the United States.” Yet, America’s response is lacking.
From President George H.W. Bush’s call for “reasoned, careful action” rather than an “emotional response” to China’s brutal suppression of the Tiananmen Square protestors to the present, Sobolik spares neither party from his criticism. “Both Republicans and Democrats appear to be doubling down on mistakes.” Sobolik writes that America is not acting “like a confident superpower” in confronting China’s imperialism. He explains why the approaches taken by the China “doves” and China “hawks” are both ineffective. Sobolik refreshes the reader on actions America took to win its cold war with the Soviet Union and recommends taking the same approach against China.
While the organization of Countering China’s Great Game is reminiscent of teaching or briefing practices (tell the students what and how you will teach/brief, tell the students what they are expected to learn; teach/brief the students; and conclude/wrap up by telling the students what you just taught and they should have learned), it is not a textbook and its writing is neither academic nor dry. Sobolik is not trying to educate students or impress China wonks. He is writing to awaken Americans to a threat to this country and their way of life that their government is not effectively countering. To do that, the book must be readable. Sobolik has made Countering China’s Great Game approachable, easy to follow, and persuasive. He uses the right amount of facts and detail to weave together historical events, political philosophies, competing approaches to international relations, nation-level economics, and even Confucianism to enable the reader to follow Sobolik’s reasoning, and kept the book to an attractive length.
Countering China’s Great Game earns a prestigious 4 out of 4 trench coats
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