Hacker News Books

Graham Allison's Destined for War about Thucydides Trap with an examination of the US and China was quite good

Awkward future-history fan fiction. There's better ways to get this warning and details about how it might unfold.

I recommend On China, World Order, and Destined for War.

Before anyone else has to go to the trouble of looking these up:
"Destined for War" is a book by Graham Allison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_T._Allison.
The others are books by Henry Kissinger (!).

The China Dream: Great Power Thinking and Strategic Posture in the Post-American Era

https://www.amazon.com/China-Dream-Thinking-Strategic-Post-A...

On China by Henry Kissinger:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/on-china_henry-kissinger/26645...

Destined for War - Graham Allison:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/destined-for-war_graham-alliso...

Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World:

https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Kuan-Yew-Insights-international/d...

See China with your own eyes!

I also recommend traveling to China. I found this to be very eye opening, and to be honest, despite all of our great problems it made me so thankful to live in a free country.

First I'm sorry Hillary Clinton lost, I was a 2008 HRC delegate, so it certainly hurts. But China is definitely a greater strategic rival than Russia. Russia's GDP is very small compared with China; in fact China surpassed the US in 2014 by PPP and if their people become just half as productive as you and I - they will become twice our GDP.

I recommend reading more on this subject. one interesting book is "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?" by Graham Allison. (Recommended by Joe Biden, and Lloyd Blankfein)

https://www.amazon.com/Destined-War-America-Escape-Thucydide...

I don't really appreciate that. I would argue I'm pretty well informed on China. I've traveled to China, I've worked with the Chinese for over a decade across various roles, my grandfather helped industrialize China, and I've read many great books on China. Personally I retweeted Hillary Clinton's support of Hong Kong protestors while I was in Beijing, so I put myself at personal risk in doing this.

But lets address your comment directly: "The level of cognitive dissonance would be off the charts." Is it?

One book I recommend is Graham Allison "Destined for War".

https://www.amazon.com/Destined-War-America-Escape-Thucydide...

One question that specifically stands out from his book - is that the West believes in Universal Human Rights. China obviously does not. This is a point of conflict and we have some very difficult questions to address in the future. Suppose China attacks Taiwan. What if China has a second Tiananmen in Hong Kong? Do we sanction China? What if China responds with more violence? What do we do? Do we go to war? This is an obvious point of conflict. And these are questions that we will have to work out in the future.

From the perspective of an investor, these are also difficult decisions. We can see this in how the NBA has responded, and how South Park has responded - each differently. Is it really wise to Balkanize the world if our goal is to encourage China to adopt Human Rights? How would a second cold war help?

Obviously I don't have the answers. But I can recognize the conflict from the perspective of a VC whose goal is to make money.

After reading many books on China I learned China values social stability over everything. In its 4,000 year history they have seen the dangers of social instability. We are a very young country and haven't seen what real chaos can look like.

(These ideas are from Henry Kissinger's on China, Destined for War by Graham T. Allison and The China Dream by Liu Mingfu)

> This is a typical orientalist take.

Yes. As I mentioned these ideas are not mine but advanced by 3 books which explain the Chinese perspective. These books are bipartisan and multinational and explain this principal.

* Henry Kissinger's on China (Republican)

* Destined for War by Graham T. Allison (Democrat - Joe Biden recommended book)

* The China Dream by Liu Mingfu (Chinese PLA General)