China Whisperers

“A FEAST OF INSPIRATION, ECCENTRICITY, AND TIMELY WISDOM. Robert Kaplan charts an ingenious route through the lessons of dealing with China, taking us into the minds of those who navigate Washington’s fantasies and Beijing’s fears.”
—Evan Osnos, author of the National Book Award–winning Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

“BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN. Kaplan examines those few Americans who took the trouble to understand China in depth during the 20th century and shows how their skills helped to bring the two countries together and their flaws helped to drive them apart.”
—Rana Mitter, professor at Harvard Kennedy School and author of Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945

“A PANORAMIC TRAVELOGUE. Kaplan shows that America has deep experts on China—but too often fails to heed their advice. Illuminating, insightful, and essential for understanding America’s relationship with its most formidable competitor.”
—Chris Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology

“DEEPLY REWARDING. Robert Kaplan has found a fascinating way to understand China, our mysterious and fearsome rival. He takes us into the lives, hearts, and minds of the ‘China whisperers,’ Americans who tried to make sense of China over the past century. Kaplan is a wonderful writer, lively and perceptive.”
—Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Road to Surrender and coauthor of The Wise Men

“WELL-INFORMED HISTORY. At a moment when the risk of US-China miscalculation is particularly high, China Whisperers shows that deep expertise is a strategic necessity.”
—Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Crisis

“A BOOK EVERY CHINA WATCHER SHOULD READ. Why does America think the way it does about China, its most important competitor? Robert Kaplan’s compelling book answers that question by telling the stories of an intriguing collection of writers, soldiers, and dreamers who have shaped what has become the key U.S. relationship—the one with Beijing.”
—John Pomfret, award-winning author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present

“FASCINATING, ENTERTAINING, AND INSIGHTFUL. This book reflects the authorial verve, on-the-ground reporting, and deep reading in musty volumes that are characteristic of Kaplan’s work. A stark warning about the frustrations of communicating findings to the people in power.”
—Max Boot, New York Times bestselling author of Reagan: His Life and Legend

“SOBERING AND TIMELY. This beautifully written book is about expertise. Strikingly, the most knowledgeable observers are the most fearful about the US and China stumbling into war.”
—Valerie Hansen, Professor of History, Yale University, and author of The Year 1000

“SINGULAR. A lifetime of seeing clearly enables Kaplan to deliver particularly perceptive portraits of those who have spent their lives deciphering China. No one is better at rendering the drama of two nations testing each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
—Peter Zeihan, New York Times bestselling author of The End of the World Is Just the Beginning and Disunited Nations

Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty-four books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including China Whisperers, Waste Land, The Loom of Time, The Tragic Mind, The Revenge of Geography, Asia’s Cauldron, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts.

For three decades, he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He is a distinguished senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the US Navy’s Executive Panel. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”

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