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China's Civilian Army, long-time China reporter Peter Martin combines a fast-paced history of the Chinese Communist Party's diplomatic corps with a deeply researched and revealing account of how China engages the world today through its diplomatic "civilian army." Drawing from over 100 memoirs by Chinese diplomats as well as years of interviews, he provides a rich portrait of how they operate-and how they are viewed by their counterparts in other nations. As China flexes its muscles across the globe, understanding the methods and motivations of Chinese diplomats will become essential for governments, business leaders, and scholars everywhere.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Founder
- Chapter 2: Shadow Diplomacy
- Chapter 3: War by Other Means
- Chapter 4: Chasing Respectability
- Chapter 5: Between Truth and Lies
- Chapter 6: Diplomacy in Retreat
- Chapter 7: Selective Integration
- Chapter 8: Rethinking Capitalism
- Chapter 9: The Fightback
- Chapter 10: Ambition Realized
- Chapter 11: Overreach
- Conclusion
- Notes
About the author
Peter Martin is a political reporter for Bloomberg News. He has written extensively on escalating tensions in the US-China relationship and reported from China's border with North Korea and its far-western region of Xinjiang. He previously worked for the consultancy APCO Worldwide in Beijing, New Delhi, and Washington, where he analyzed politics for multinational companies. In Washington, he served as chief of staff to the company's global CEO. His writing has been published by outlets including Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, the Guardian, the Jamestown China Brief, the Diplomat and the Christian Science Monitor. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, Peking University and the London School of Economics.
Summary
The untold story of China's rise as a global superpower, chronicled through the diplomatic shock troops that connect Beijing to the world.
China's Civilian Army charts China's transformation from an isolated and impoverished communist state to a global superpower from the perspective of those on the front line: China's diplomats. They give a rare perspective on the greatest geopolitical drama of the last half century.
In the early days of the People's Republic, diplomats were highly-disciplined, committed communists who feared revealing any weakness to the threatening capitalist world. Remarkably, the model that revolutionary leader Zhou Enlai established continues to this day despite the massive changes the country has undergone in recent decades.
Little is known or understood about the inner workings of the Chinese government as the country bursts onto the world stage, as the world's second largest economy and an emerging military superpower. China's Diplomats embody its battle between insecurity and self-confidence, internally and externally. To this day, Chinese diplomats work in pairs so that one can always watch the other for signs of ideological impurity. They're often dubbed China's "wolf warriors" for their combative approach to asserting Chinese interests.
Drawing for the first time on the memoirs of more than a hundred retired diplomats as well as author Peter Martin's first-hand reporting as a journalist in Beijing, this groundbreaking book blends history with current events to tease out enduring lessons about the kind of power China is set to become. It is required reading for anyone who wants to understand China's quest for global power, as seen from the inside.
Additional text
Peter Martin paints a deeply human portrait of China's emissaries, pulling back the veil on their motivations and struggles.
