Description
“The Final Struggle shows, using the regime’s own words, how Beijing’s aspirations aren’t regional—they’re global, with grave implications not only for democracy, but for the centuries-old principle of national sovereignty.”
—Matt Pottinger
The Chinese government has a sinister secret. And it’s hiding in plain sight. Drawing from internal military documents and never-before-seen writings and speeches by Xi Jinping, The Final Struggle takes readers inside Beijing’s shadowy halls of power to reveal the plans, intentions, and operations of the most powerful – and covert – political organization in the world.
For decades the economic rise of China has been paired with an insistence from the government in Beijing that theirs would be a peaceful rise; that other countries had nothing to fear from China. The democratic world has been largely content to accept those promises, as cheap manufactured goods and huge profits for Western elites flowed out of China. In truth, leaders from Deng Xiaoping onward have been biding their time as China’s power grew.
Today a strengthened, emboldened Chinese Communist Party is dropping the act. Chairman Xi Jinping has amassed more power than any leader since Mao Zedong, and his officials openly proclaim their intention to change the world, subvert democratic norms and instill their own brand of autocratic control. In a nutshell: to remake the world in China’s image, something Xi refers to as “the final struggle”.
The arenas the CCP seeks to control include global manufacturing, currency markets, finance, trade, security, food production and distribution, human rights, health, counter-terrorism, human rights, strategic resources, and more. Taken together this amounts to nothing less than a desire for global domination, a desire the Party has already started to make a reality. Deeply researched and engagingly written, The Final Struggle is an urgent call to understand Beijing’s true intentions, and to act before it’s too late.
About the Author
Ian Easton is a Senior Director at the Project 2049 Institute, where he studies defense and security issues involving the People’s Republic of China. Previously, Ian was a visiting fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs, a China analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, and a researcher for the Asia Bureau of Defense News. He has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and given talks at the U.S. Naval War College, U.S. Army JAG School, Japan’s National Defense Academy, Taiwan’s National Defense University, and Germany’s Command and Staff College. Ian holds an M.A. in China Studies from National Chengchi University in Taiwan and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied Mandarin at Fudan University in Shanghai and National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.
Advance Praise
“Ian Easton’s The Final Struggle: Inside China’s Global Strategy is a must-read for anyone who cares about freedom’s future. It’s a convincing and in-depth study of the CCP’s unbridled ambition for global dominance.”
—Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and US Secretary of State.
“Ian Easton, a key member of a new generation of scholars with the chops to analyze internal Chinese documents, obliterates the idea that Beijing’s strategic plans are obscure. The Final Struggle shows, using the regime’s own words, how Beijing’s aspirations aren’t regional—they’re global, with grave implications not only for democracy, but for the centuries-old principle of national sovereignty.”
—Matt Pottinger, former Deputy National Security Advisor (and chairman of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies).
“Few have done more to raise the alarm about the growing threat from the Chinese Communist Party than Ian Easton. Now, in his latest work, he provides an accessible and compelling look at the Party, how it operates, and the world it envisions. The Final Struggle is essential reading for anyone interested in defending the free world.”
—Congressman Mike Gallagher
“Ian’s book is a great explanation of how we got to a world where China ‘would no longer even pretend to defer to the United States on the world stage’ – and what to do about it.”
—Isaac Stone Fish, author of America Second: How America’s Elites Are Making China Stronger
“Ian Easton’s account of the Chinese Communist Party’s global ambition and strategy is essential reading for those who appreciate American freedom and those who should. Easton performs a signal service by translating Xi Jinping Thought into plain English and tracking the party-state sinews running across American infrastructure and society. Come for Xi’s quasi-religious homages to Marx. Stay for the CCP’s 2019 decision to remake the world’s ‘global governance system’ in its image. The Final Struggle depicts the future we have to forestall and sounds an alarm we must heed.”
—Jacqueline Newmyer Deal, President and CEO of Long Term Strategy Group
“What are the Chinese Communist Party’s goals and how does it intend to achieve them? Ian Easton’s new book seeks to answer these important questions by examining a wide variety of Chinese language sources, including both official statements and previously untranslated documents intended only for internal circulation. Easton’s conclusions are grim and will be controversial, but they deserve to be considered and debated.”
—Aaron L. Friedberg, author of Getting China Wrong and Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University
“In this rigorous yet accessible study, Ian Easton delivers the definitive and often chilling account of China’s ambitions to supplant the existing global system. Drawing extensively from authoritative Chinese-language sources, he lets the Chinese Communist Party speak for itself about its quest for supremacy. Easton skillfully weaves in riveting vignettes that are sure to keep readers turning pages. The Final Struggle is a wakeup call for the policy community and the citizenry alike to meet China’s challenge on the world stage.”
—Toshi Yoshihara, senior fellow, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and coauthor of Red Star over the Pacific