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A review by sisa_moyo
Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America by Gordon G. Chang
Chang's "Plan Red" is written as an urgent wake-up call to China's plan to infiltrate, destabilise, kill and destroy America. From arguing that COVID was manufactured by the CCP to kill Americans, to advancing the idea that the "Chinese dream" is to topple the USA as hegemon and replace with worldwide Chinese rule, Chang calls US policymakers to take action against a hostile communist China.
From the onset, I had so many issues with the book. It writes extensively on a hostile, unprovoked China threat against a "good" and moral USA which has done nothing wrong ever. There is no mention of US military exploits across the world, its imperialism, its history of backing of insurgents and propping puppet governments, the ills of the Westphalian system or the liberal economic system. This is one of the main flaws of the book, which scholars of US-China relations would need addressed. It reads very much like propaganda for the dominant US-based narrative of a rising China as a threat to the US hegemon, meant to scare the American people - from the exaggerated tone of "China's war plans" to a China "preparing for war", to the zionism to correlating the "Chinese dream" with world domination.
Additionally, most key claims of the book, especially those regarding Xi's aspirations and sentiments either a) lack references or b) are referenced not from Xi's speeches or at least CCP posts/documents but from another Western written secondary source. Additionally, most claims about China's goals are from emails between the author and some scholar, emails that we do not get transcripts of in the notes of the book. This for me weakens greatly the credibility of most of Chang's arguments and claims. From terms like "this suggests that" to scholar A "told me", it is difficult to take seriously and attach much scholarly weight on Chang's Plan Red. Besides the multiple flaws and fallacies in the flow and logic of Chang's arguments, most of said claims are widely held conspiracies known to the public and he offers nothing new or different on the "the China threat" or US-China relations. He also purports a solution to the China threat, so radical and unfeasible in the liberal economic system he glorifies.
It is thus difficult for me to recommend this book to any International Relations scholars, especially those within the US-China field as this offers nothing new or crucial. I would recommend it least to non-academics of the field as this only pushes a scare-tactic, tired and uncritical understanding of the complexities of China's internal environment or external security concerns. It is for an audience that is already within the narrative of China as threat and works simply to flame those ideas and not for those wanting a more critical and substantial understanding of China's interests.
[e-arc courtesy of netgalley]
From the onset, I had so many issues with the book. It writes extensively on a hostile, unprovoked China threat against a "good" and moral USA which has done nothing wrong ever. There is no mention of US military exploits across the world, its imperialism, its history of backing of insurgents and propping puppet governments, the ills of the Westphalian system or the liberal economic system. This is one of the main flaws of the book, which scholars of US-China relations would need addressed. It reads very much like propaganda for the dominant US-based narrative of a rising China as a threat to the US hegemon, meant to scare the American people - from the exaggerated tone of "China's war plans" to a China "preparing for war", to the zionism to correlating the "Chinese dream" with world domination.
Additionally, most key claims of the book, especially those regarding Xi's aspirations and sentiments either a) lack references or b) are referenced not from Xi's speeches or at least CCP posts/documents but from another Western written secondary source. Additionally, most claims about China's goals are from emails between the author and some scholar, emails that we do not get transcripts of in the notes of the book. This for me weakens greatly the credibility of most of Chang's arguments and claims. From terms like "this suggests that" to scholar A "told me", it is difficult to take seriously and attach much scholarly weight on Chang's Plan Red. Besides the multiple flaws and fallacies in the flow and logic of Chang's arguments, most of said claims are widely held conspiracies known to the public and he offers nothing new or different on the "the China threat" or US-China relations. He also purports a solution to the China threat, so radical and unfeasible in the liberal economic system he glorifies.
It is thus difficult for me to recommend this book to any International Relations scholars, especially those within the US-China field as this offers nothing new or crucial. I would recommend it least to non-academics of the field as this only pushes a scare-tactic, tired and uncritical understanding of the complexities of China's internal environment or external security concerns. It is for an audience that is already within the narrative of China as threat and works simply to flame those ideas and not for those wanting a more critical and substantial understanding of China's interests.
[e-arc courtesy of netgalley]