Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World

China uses its enormous market and financial clout to coerce foreign countries and companies into complying with its geopolitical agenda, according to this savvy debut. Allen, the China correspondent for Axios, surveys the Chinese government’s “authoritarian economic statecraft” during the Covid-19 pandemic: exploiting the world’s distraction to impose authoritarian rule on Hong Kong; demanding that Zoom, whose research-and-development operation is in China, shut down meetings involving Chinese pro-democracy dissidents; using face-mask exports to strong-arm foreign governments into praising China; and other international pressure campaigns. She sets all this amid a critique of the Western neoliberal belief that capitalism will automatically nudge China toward liberal democracy. Without countervailing incentives from their own governments, she argues, Western corporations acquiesce to Beijing’s dictates, lobby for pro-Chinese policies, and censor criticism of the Chinese government on media platforms. Allen’s elegantly written investigation blends economic history with vivid reporting on such players as Chinese spy Christine Fang, who allegedly spread Beijing’s influence by seducing California congressman Eric Swalwell and other politicians. Less cogent is her reform program, a grab bag of vague proposals including international trade regulations, diversification of supply chains, and using “algorithms to prioritize fair and fact-based content.” Still, it’s a startling and timely panorama of Chinese economic subversion. (Aug.)