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Audible Audiobook
Listening Length: 10 hours and 37 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Audible.com Release Date: January 10, 2017
Language: English, English
ASIN: B01MS40HBY
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
For several years now, political pundits, economists and foreign policy experts have assured the public that the next century will be the Asian century due to the incredible economic growth in the region along with its seemingly stable, safe environment. This prediction, once considered an inevitability, has become far less rosy in the current decade as problems with economic stagnation, slowdowns, demographics, political unrest, and corruption become more apparent. As someone who has lived in Asia for many years I can confirm that much of what is written here matches what I've been seeing, but I find myself skeptical of the solutions presented inside the book.The book defines Asia as the Indo-Pacific region and attempts to educate the reader about the problems these countries face via demographics, economic stagnation and slowdowns, corruption, authoritarianism, and the increasing chances of regional armed conflict. The author skips around to different countries in all the chapters, but most of the focus in on Japan, India, and China with less time spent with ASEAN. The chapters on economics shows that while some countries like Japan, South Korea and China have seen tremendous growth, other nations are barely getting themselves off the ground as the economic picture becomes far less stable. The chapter on armed conflict largely focuses on China's rapid military growth and the instability presented by North Korea. The detailed, factual picture presenting the wide-ranging problems Asia faces is one that matches what I have seen and heard myself.Unfortunately, the major problem I have with this book is the solutions section presented in the final chapter. I was hopeful when the author expressed that Asia is a region torn between authoritarianism and democracy, while making it clear that democracy was not going to be the inevitable winner in the region as many Westerners might think. However, at the end the book only offered the predictable solution of promoting liberalization throughout all of Asia as the antidote for all its problems, along with accepting and supporting the global economy with massive, multi-party trade deals like the recently shelved TPP. It prescribes the US and the Europe as integral parts of the cure since they can help inject liberal values into Asia to create a Pan-Asian region similar to that of the EU.I find this type of rhetoric similar to the "end of history" line presented by Francis Fukuyama after the Soviet Union fell, which is now considered by many to be wishful thinking. This book, while informative for someone who has little to no understanding of this part of the world, leaves out some insights that I have found in my time living and traveling in the area. It is why I cannot simply agree with the solutions presented and I will try my best to explain some of my own misgivings below.First of all, there's the idea that the US and the EU should support the democracies of Asia in order to spread liberalization to the more authoritarian countries. This might be a good idea if several clear instances hadn't already been made that neither of these candidates for advocating democracy are willing to stand up for those brave people defying authoritarianism in favor of democracy and liberalism. The Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong, a protest against unfair election practices, saw no support from either party against Beijing. When Hong Kong book sellers were kidnapped and imprisoned for selling books critical of China's leadership and when fairly elected Independence candidates were denied their seats by Beijing, the EU and US did not protest on their behalf. Taiwan, the only ethnically Chinese democratic country in the region, receives no support from the EU as far as I'm aware and marginal, vague support from the US. When the Hague voted in favor of the Philippines against Beijing in a dispute of sovereign territory, China simply decided to ignore the ruling and continue its previous behavior. The US and EU, predictably, did nothing.I cannot understate the sense of disillusionment this gives to the people of the region who do believe in democracy. In Taiwan, where I have lived, the young and the old have all come to the same conclusion: the only value that matters is money. China has it. They don't. Democracy doesn't actually matter and, as much as I might have wanted to argue, I couldn't. They're facing reality and realizing that in spite of adopting Western values, no one is going to help them when China comes for them. The same message is being received in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, make no mistake. Money matters. They don't.Adding to the disillusionment is the deeply embedded corruption found in democratic governments, which seems on par with those in authoritarian regimes. Democracy should, technically, create more trustworthy politicians and institutions than authoritarian states. Yet, for many people, the only difference seems to be that democratic leaders are a bit easier to get rid of, though that doesn't stop them from returning to power in some other form.Now, onto the idea that liberalization and democracy are the keys to long term stability in Asia. For this point, one should consider what people in this region are seeing inside the democracies of the US and EU. The reports of frequent terrorist attacks, violent shootings, ethnic tensions, riots, migration crises, and staggering unemployment rates do not present a strong case for democracy against authoritarianism. Many Westerners comment that they enjoy visiting or living in Asia because of how safe they feel inside these countries, authoritarian or otherwise. Internal security matters and tourists from Japan, South Korea and China are now avoiding traveling to countries like France because they fear for their safety. Clearly, democracy and liberalization does not necessarily make a stable, safe society.Finally, focusing on democracy and liberalization before creating a stable economic environment is basically placing the cart before the horse. Japan, for example, only began to become a more liberal society after its economy was able to provide for the needs of its citizens, not before. If democracy advocates become too pushy in pressing for liberalization, then Asian countries will turn to more authoritarian states who will give them money regardless of their stance on human rights. This is already becoming the case with Thailand and Malaysia. It is also furthered by the international business climate, whose investments largely depend on cutting the best possible deal. This, of course, usually entails the exploitation of the poor and underprivileged. Thus, money will trump liberalization and democracy every time.There are other points I could make regarding saving face, pride, ethnicity and power, but this review has become quite wordy as it is. To summarize: geopolitics is a blood sport and money trumps any other value in today's world. Spreading liberalization and democracy would require its advocates to forgo wealth for the sake of unshakeable, uncompromising values--which, given what I've seen recently, seems unlikely to happen. More importantly, the very people who the Westerners are supposed to be instilling their values in are fast losing faith in said values as their democratic "allies" largely abandon them. Authoritarianism will be the winner as long as any semblance of value is forsaken for monetary gain.
I’ve worked and invested in Asian countries. I found this book to be a worthwhile read from several perspectives:1. It provides details, not platitudes. We are all familiar with the platitudes about Asia being the world’s growth engine. Michael Auslin shows us the fouled spark plugs inside the engine that may freeze it up. He calls it “The Asia nobody sees.â€2. It provides an in-depth analysis of countries from India to Indochina to Japan to Korea to China to Indonesia and the Philippines. We are accustomed to thinking of these countries in common as “Asia-Pacific.†Auslin shows us that differences between neighboring Asian countries often exceed the differences between Canada and Argentina at opposite ends of our hemisphere.3. Because Asia has such a wide spectrum of extremes, its trendlines exaggerate what we see in the USA. For example, Japan has a much steeper demographic decline than we do. They are automating their society because they do not have enough humans to do the work. We can understand demographic challenges by observing how the Japanese, and soon the Chinese, will deal with theirs. We can learn from their mistakes and successes.4. It’s a warning against complacency. We see trouble brewing in Asia from many smoldering conflicts, but we imagine that prosperity brought by trade will smooth over the differences. Peace is not inevitable. We could wake up one morning and find North Korean artillery demolishing Seoul, and warning that if we intervene, Los Angeles and Seattle will be vaporized by North Korean nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. We could find ourselves in a war with China invading Taiwan or another country where maritime boundaries are disputed. Asian nations are not as stable as they appear. Unstable nations are prone to going to war. Perhaps harder work is needed now to avert war.Are there still opportunities for Asia to grow and prosper, or is “The Asian Century†about to be buried under the rubble of demographic decline, political instability, and perhaps even war? Auslin writes:=====To put it starkly, what we are seeing today may be the beginning of the end of the “Asian Century.†For decades, prominent and knowledgeable observers, from bankers and industrialists to scholars and politicians, have predicted the rise of the Asia-Pacific and an era of unparalleled Asian power, prosperity, and peace. At the same time, many writers assure us that the East is replacing the West, in a great shift of global power that will permanently reshape our world. All those predictions now are themselves at risk. I did not travel to Asia looking for trouble. Just the contrary. After nearly a quarter-century studying and dealing with Asia, I initially planned on writing a book on how America’s future would be tied to a resurgent Indo-Pacific, a variant of what then secretary of state Hillary Clinton called “America’s Pacific Century.†To my surprise (and initial resistance), the more I traveled around the region, starting around 2010, the more I became aware of the risks we in the West were ignoring.=====Auslin quantifies these social, economic, political, and military risks. Some of the risks surprised me. Japan is far more at risk to economic and demographic decline than I knew. According to Auslin, Japanese society is coming apart at the seams. He surmises that population is declining so precipitately because Japanese men and women no longer enjoy bonding in families. Women prefer to work until they grow old then die alone. Men are left to gratify themselves with pornography. Fewer children who are born to parents who delay marriage to middle age. Of the children who are born, many never go on to higher education, learn a trade, or ever go to work. Much of the younger generation is idled in an economy starved for labor (a question I would ask, is why don’t wages rise sufficiently to attract the idle to work?)Of course, this breakdown of families in the urban centers of the developed world is a global phenomenon happening in the USA too. What are the social and economic factors that make it so extreme in Japan? Is there anything we can learn that will help the USA avoid this lonely fate?My other surprise was China. Like most Americans, I respect the character of Chinese people for their high standards of work, intelligence, and morality; an optimistic and forward-working nature, and a socially happy personality. However, China’s government is doing what authoritarian governments usually do, which is to bend our trade relations to work to their advantage. Auslin describes the mix of the Chinese mafia, Chinese military, and Chinese crony capitalists who browbeat our companies into transferring their trade secrets to Chinese companies, or extract it with relentless cyberwarfare if they refuse to voluntarily surrender it.Auslin says that educated Chinese resent their authoritarian and corrupt government. What would happen if China’s leaders anticipated that the people were about to rise against them? Would they seek to divert their people wrath by declaring war on neighboring countries, including the USA?I was also educated to some surprising facts about India, which is at the opposite end of the demographic spectrum, and still growing its population by an astounding 180,000,000 per decade! Auslin says that India maintains its population growth by keeping women in the home, getting pregnant instead of going to work. Here again, we can wonder if there are any lessons to learn about keeping our population up by incentivizing women to forego some economic gain of working in order to have more children?The only complaint I have with the book is the bogus accounting that is used to advocate for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty. Economists in the USA and Europe have realized how unpopular these treaties are, so they have kept busy devising increasingly creative accounting to obscure their bad effects on the USA.The facts are:1. In 2015 the USA ran a $367 billion trade deficit with China; $155 billion with the European Union; $68 billion with Japan; $60 billion with Mexico; $28 billion with South Korea; and $23 billion with India. China sold us four times as much as it bought from us.2. Trade with these countries did not “produce millions of high-paying jobs for American workers who will make products for export†as promised. The reverse happened. Americans who already had high-paying jobs making product that was sold in America lost their jobs when their companies moved production to Asia in order to use its low-wage work force to produce product that is IMPORTED INTO THE USA.3. USA exports to Asia are declining. As more factories are moved overseas, we make less product to export.4. Our business with Asia is about moving jobs out of the USA, not exporting product for Asians to buy. We have transferred millions of American jobs that were paying an average of $25 / hour to Asia, where the wage is $1.50 / hour. This is a destruction of over a trillion dollars of income in the USA each year.5. The USA is getting poorer because we have fewer people working, now that the factories have gone to Asia. The Asian countries are getting poorer because there are fewer Americans drawing paychecks that allow them to buy Asian imports.6. The world economy is getting sicker. It is no longer sustained by wage-earning labor, but by financial shenanigans, stock market scams, and growing mountains of government debt that can never be repaid. Americans become poorer because their jobs are removed to Asia. The Asian countries make their people poorer by devaluing their currencies so that unemployed Americans can buy them on the cheap. Everybody loses.As a result, Americans and Europeans have begun to understand that trade with low-wage countries in Asia is detrimental. Free Trade Mavens have therefore developed a method of accounting to try to deceive them into thinking otherwise. The bogus foreign trade accounting, such as you will find in this book, goes something like this:Suppose you work for a bank and earn $20,000 a year. The bank convinces you to take out a home equity loan of $80,000 a year and spend it on enhancing your life style. After a while you realize that if your debt continues to increase, you will have to declare bankruptcy and allow the bank to repossess your home and all your possessions.Your banker, who on paper is profiteering from the interest he charges you on your mounting debt, tells you, “Don’t worry. You don’t really owe $80,000 more to the bank every year. We take your $80,000 and pay $50,000 of it out in employee salaries, including your $20,000. Of the remaining $30,000, $20,000 goes to pay our overhead. We only earn $10,000. So you’re really running a trade SURPLUS with us. We’re paying you $20,000 a year, and you’re only owing us $10,000. What a great deal for you!â€Of course, you owe the bank the $80,000 each year, plus all the accumulated interest.This is how the Free Trade Mavens are trying to deceive us about our trade deficits with China and other countries. They want us to believe that a $367 billion trade deficit with China is really a trade surplus because China theoretically might distribute the money to other people in other countries. In actual practice, China uses our money to buy up businesses and government debt of other countries, including in the USA, thereby using the accumulation of our money to lock us out of foreign markets while encumbering us with debt that we, or our children must pay back with interests to China.Aside from that, the book is educational in its details about the Indo-Asian countries and the opportunities and issues we will encounter in our economic, political, and military relations with them. The book should be read by those who desire to be informed and proactive in thinking of the future with Asia.
Auslin provides a holistic view of the developments in the Indo-Pacific. He includes the medium-term view looking at demographics and political institutions - things that are often overlooked in mainstream discourse. The metaphor of map is useful here. I hope more people will read this book and be more even-keel about the challenges that countries face in the Indo/Asia-Pacific.
Good book. Published in 2017; things have changed - North Korea and the U.S. leaving the TPP, but a good book that covers security, political, demographic, and economic issues of the major players in Asia. The author offers a different perspective from the norm, but I like reading the alternative ideas.
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