The Hundred-Year Marathon, by Michael Pillsbury

Join us as we begin our online book club discussion of "The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower," by Michael Pillsbury.

Assigned reading for this week: Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2. Please Note: Completion of the assigned reading is a prerequisite for attending. If you did not have the chance to do the reading, please join us another time.

What's this book about?
Published in 2015 and, at the time, a "#1 National Bestseller," The Hundred-Year Marathon is widely considered highly influential in shifting U.S. policy toward a more confrontational and competitive stance with China, particularly within the Trump administration. While opinions on the book's scholarly merit have been mixed, its central thesis and the author's position as a China expert, have significantly impacted Washington's perception of China. Thus, the book remains relevant today.

The book's jacket states: "For more than forty years, the United States has played an indispensable role helping the Chinese government build a booming economy, develop its scientific and military capabilities, and take its place on the world stage, in the belief that China's rise will bring us cooperation, diplomacy, and free trade. But what if the "China Dream" is to replace us, just as America replaced the British Empire, without firing a shot?

Based on interviews with Chinese defectors and newly declassified, previously undisclosed national security documents, The Hundred-Year Marathon reveals China's secret strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power, and to do so by 2049, the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. Michael Pillsbury, a fluent Mandarin speaker who has served in senior national security positions in the U.S. government since the days of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, draws on his decades of contact with the "hawks" in China's military and intelligence agencies and translates their documents, speeches, and books to show how the teachings of traditional Chinese statecraft underpin their actions. He offers an inside look at how the Chinese really view America and its leaders – as barbarians who will be the architects of their own demise.

Pillsbury also explains how the U.S. government has helped – sometimes unwittingly and sometimes deliberately – to make this "China Dream" come true, and he calls for the United States to implement a new, more competitive strategy toward China as it really is, and not as we might wish it to be. The Hundred-Year Marathon is a wake-up call as we face the greatest national security challenge of the twenty-first century."

About the author.
Michael Pillsbury is an American foreign policy strategist, former high-ranking government official, and author, known for his decades of analysis on U.S.-China relations. He has held various senior national security positions, including with the Defense Department and on the staff of four US Senate committees, across multiple presidential administrations, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. Pillsbury worked at the RAND Corporation and on Senate committees where he was involved in establishing the U.S. Institute of Peace and the National Endowment for Democracy. He chaired the Defense Policy Board during the first Trump administration. Pillsbury has also held positions at policy research institutions, including the Hudson Institute, as its director of the Center on Chinese Strategy, and The Heritage Foundation. He remains a consultant to the US Department of Defense.

How this book club works.
Our book discussion will be spread out over several consecutive weeks, with two-hour meetings every Tuesday evening. This gives us time to explore the readings with the depth and care they deserve. Please bring your own thought-provoking questions and insights from the reading to share with the group. We like lively discussions that challenge our own ideas and those of the author and allow us to learn from each other -- while enjoying camaraderie! All we ask is that everyone be treated as co-equals, both in respect and approximate speaking time. Feel free to post (in the Comments below) any additional resources you find -- including ones that challenge the author. We hope to see you at our Tuesday meetings!