“Doggedly reported and fiercely argued … offers essential insight into Beijing’s aims and activities” - Publishers Weekly
“Powerful, heartfelt” - New York Review of Books
“An eye-opening exposé” - Ormsby Review
Winner of the Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
Paperback, ebook, audiobook, French and Dutch edition available internationally
As the world’s second-largest economy, China is extending its influence across the globe with the complicity of democratic nations.
Joanna Chiu has spent a decade tracking China’s propulsive rise, from the political aspects of its multi-billion-dollar “New Silk Road” global investment project to its growing sway over foreign countries and multilateral institutions through “United Front” efforts.
For too long, Western societies have mishandled or simply ignored Beijing’s actions, out of narrow self-interest. Over time, Chiu argues, decades of willful misinterpretation have become harmful complicity in the toxic diplomacy, human rights abuses and foreign interference seen from China today.
Engaging chapters transport readers to a frozen lake in Russia, protests in Hong Kong, underground churches in Beijing, and exile Uyghur communities in Turkey, exposing Beijing’s high-tech surveillance and aggressive measures, which result in human rights violations against those who challenge its power.