Expertly researched and thought-out, yet approachable and witty, this book will immediately draw in anyone interested in global affairs, foreign policy and the future of America's role on the world stage.

This book provides a fascinating insider's look at how China is changing rapidly today, how these changes pose grave risks to the rest of the world, and how the U.S. and its allies can best address these challenges. Trade wars and U.S. presidents may come and go, but the fundamental dynamics of the U.S.-China relationship will remain in place for years to come.

Challenging China is a popular current events explanation of how China has become more authoritarian and expansionist and what strategies the U.S. and its allies need to adopt to address this new China. Although delving into serious issues, Challenging China is written in an engaging way and probably the only book on China that references Dolly Parton, LeBron James and Bruce Springsteen.

Topics addressed include:

The ongoing political crackdown in Hong Kong and heightened tensions with Taiwan
The deteriorating human rights situation in China for normal Chinese as well as the Uyghur and Tibetan minorities
Internal Chinese political and social dynamics and Xi Jinping's dominance of the party
China's ongoing sense of anti-Western grievance and its new military assertiveness
Increases in censorship and governmental control of dissent both off and online
The effects of U.S. trade policy on China including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Trump's tariff wars, and the new U.S.-China Trade Agreement
How and why U.S. responses up to now have been ineffectual and counter-productive
Climate change policy and how cooperating with China can work if we want it to
New strategies to convince China to modify its behavior while avoiding direct confrontation
And much more!


The story of China's rise is a remarkable tale of economic success, but that alone has not and will not lead to political liberalization. This book shows how actively engaging China, while protecting our own interests, can in fact work to promote its liberalization. This includes a wide array of strategies including trade alliances with other countries, cooperating with China on climate change, protecting Taiwan and using human rights as a foreign policy tool.

Author Sam Kaplan has worked on China policy and trade for over thirty years. Drawing upon his extensive experience, contacts and research, he proposes new ways of dealing with China in a smarter, more realistic way. There is reason to be optimistic that China can and will change if we apply the right strategies and have the will to implement them.