China Whisperers: The Voices That Have Shaped America's Views of Its Chief Geopolitical Rival
Nov 2026 · Sold by Simon and Schuster
Ebook
448
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infoThis book will become available on November 10, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
From one of the most prominent post-Cold War geopolitics experts, an “illuminating, insightful, and essential” (Chris Miller, bestselling author of Chip War) look at US-China relations and the China experts who have influenced—and continue to influence—America’s policy toward its greatest rival.
Few countries or civilizations are as big or as old as China. In the minds of Americans whose job it is to contemplate international affairs, the present-day superpower has always been more than just the “ultimate place”: quite simply, it is the essential foreign policy challenge—one frequently thought incapable of being solved.
Enter the China Whisperers—those of the past and the present. A hundred years ago, they were American missionaries, travelers, journalists, linguists, and foreign service officers who were on the ground, fluent in Mandarin, and enamored of the culture. They were the true China experts, and over a period of a few transformative decades they had front-row seats to the formation of both the Nationalist and Communist parties; crossed the Gobi Desert; searched out the young Mao Zedong in the wilds of Yen'an province; provided visionary analysis on the American predicament in Asia; bore witness to China’s World War II; and made invaluable contributions to journalism, diplomacy, and American foreign policy in East Asia.
The China Whisperers’ ranks have been filled more recently not so much by nomadic journalists and explorers as by multi-lingual policy experts who’ve had the ear of the person occupying the Oval Office. Often, their voices have proved critical, counseling engagement over precipitous moves. Across the decades, China Whisperers is the story of how Americans interpreting China have both succeeded and failed—for while some proved prophetic others were shown to be dupes. The book paints a full-bodied portrait of the drama of trying to understand a radically different and age-old culture—and of the US-China rivalry that constitutes the most dangerous element of geopolitics.
Few countries or civilizations are as big or as old as China. In the minds of Americans whose job it is to contemplate international affairs, the present-day superpower has always been more than just the “ultimate place”: quite simply, it is the essential foreign policy challenge—one frequently thought incapable of being solved.
Enter the China Whisperers—those of the past and the present. A hundred years ago, they were American missionaries, travelers, journalists, linguists, and foreign service officers who were on the ground, fluent in Mandarin, and enamored of the culture. They were the true China experts, and over a period of a few transformative decades they had front-row seats to the formation of both the Nationalist and Communist parties; crossed the Gobi Desert; searched out the young Mao Zedong in the wilds of Yen'an province; provided visionary analysis on the American predicament in Asia; bore witness to China’s World War II; and made invaluable contributions to journalism, diplomacy, and American foreign policy in East Asia.
The China Whisperers’ ranks have been filled more recently not so much by nomadic journalists and explorers as by multi-lingual policy experts who’ve had the ear of the person occupying the Oval Office. Often, their voices have proved critical, counseling engagement over precipitous moves. Across the decades, China Whisperers is the story of how Americans interpreting China have both succeeded and failed—for while some proved prophetic others were shown to be dupes. The book paints a full-bodied portrait of the drama of trying to understand a radically different and age-old culture—and of the US-China rivalry that constitutes the most dangerous element of geopolitics.
From one of the most prominent post-Cold War geopolitics experts, an “illuminating, insightful, and essential” (Chris Miller, bestselling author of Chip War) look at US-China relations and the China experts who have influenced—and continue to influence—America’s policy toward its greatest rival.
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About the author
Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty-four books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including China Whisperers, Waste Land, The Loom of Time, The Tragic Mind, The Revenge of Geography, Asia’s Cauldron, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts. For three decades he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He is a distinguished senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the US Navy’s Executive Panel. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”
Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty-four books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including China Whisperers, Waste Land, The Loom of Time, The Tragic Mind, The Revenge of Geography, Asia’s Cauldron, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts. For three deca...
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