Quotes
“Michael Pillsbury has been meeting with, talking to, and studying the ‘hawks’ in China’s military and intelligence apparatus for more than four decades, since back when America and China were cooperating against the Soviet Union. In this fascinating, provocative new book, he lays out the hawks’ views about the United States and their long-term strategies for overcoming American power by the middle of this century. In the process, the book challenges the wrong-headed assumptions in Washington about a gradually reforming China. Given the direction China has been taking in the past few years, Pillsbury’s book takes on immediate relevance.” James Mann, New York Times bestselling author
“This is without question the most important book written about Chinese strategy and foreign policy in years. Michael Pillsbury has spent more than four decades for the Pentagon and the CIA talking to and learning from a core of Chinese ‘hard-liners’ who may be the driving force behind Chinese foreign policy today under Xi Jinping. Based on meticulous scholarship and written in lively, engaging prose, this book offers a sobering corrective to what has long been the dominant, soothing narrative of Sino-American cooperation.” Robert Kagan, New York Times bestselling author
“Pungently written and rich in detail, this book deserves to enter the mainstream of debate over the future of US-Chinese relations.” Foreign Affairs
“Despite dealing with a weighty subject, Pillsbury says everything that he wants to say…[in] this highly readable book. It deserves to be widely read and debated.” Christian Science Monitor
"The Hundred-Year Marathon is based on work that Michael Pillsbury did for the CIA that landed him the Director’s Exceptional Performance Award. It is a fascinating chronicle of his odyssey from the ranks of the ‘panda-huggers’ to a principled, highly informed, and lonely stance alerting us to China’s long-term strategy of achieving dominance. He shows that we face a clever, entrenched, and ambitious potential enemy, suffused with the shrewdness of Sun Tzu conducting a determined search for the best way to sever our Achilles’ heel. We have vital work to do, urgently.” R. James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence and chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
“A presentation of China’s hidden agenda grounded in the author’s longtime work at the US Defense Department…Fodder for concerned thought.” Kirkus Reviews
“A provocative exploration of the historical sources of China’s grand strategy to become number one.” Graham Allison, director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs