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A review by boipoka
China Unbound: A New World Disorder by Joanna Chiu
3.0
It would be a very interesting read if I wasn't well aware of the New Silk Road initiatives, as well as most of the other events discussed in the book. The only thing I learnt from the book is the history of and current tensions around Lake Baikal - which I was completely unaware of. But everything else discussed in the book, I've already read about in more details than the book covered, so my overall experience was a bit "meh".
It's a decent enough introduction to China's machinations on the world stage if (a) you've never read/heard anything about China and (b) you're an "western citizen". This book is very heavily focused on "the west". So much so that though we spend one third of the book on the new silk road, we don't delve into China's involvement in infrastructure development in Africa and Asia. The chapters are focused on European nations, and we are only informed in passing about China's port in Sri Lanka or its military base in Djibouti. I was rather disappointed to see that - influencing developing nations is a very important part of building a world order, so I had expected to spend more time there.
Overall, not a bad book, and there's tons of good journalistic research - but it wasn't what I was looking for.
It's a decent enough introduction to China's machinations on the world stage if (a) you've never read/heard anything about China and (b) you're an "western citizen". This book is very heavily focused on "the west". So much so that though we spend one third of the book on the new silk road, we don't delve into China's involvement in infrastructure development in Africa and Asia. The chapters are focused on European nations, and we are only informed in passing about China's port in Sri Lanka or its military base in Djibouti. I was rather disappointed to see that - influencing developing nations is a very important part of building a world order, so I had expected to spend more time there.
Overall, not a bad book, and there's tons of good journalistic research - but it wasn't what I was looking for.