The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century.

• Author: Chafin, Chris
• Position: Brief article - Book review

THE BEIJING CONSENSUS: HOW CHINA'S AUTHORITARIAN MODEL WILL DOMINATE THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Stefan Halper

(New York: Basic Books, 2010), 252 pages.

In The Beijing Consensus, Stefan Halper, a longtime Republican insider who served presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H. W. Bush in various capacities, makes a somewhat muddy attempt to sort out the appeal of China's particular brand of authoritarian capitalism.

Halper traces China's rise from the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s to today, when it is something like a nonaligned superpower, lending money indiscriminately to what he calls "pariah states" (e.g., Sudan, Angola and Venezuela), hosting lavish receptions for leaders in the Global South and wielding increasing influence in international bodies like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.

Halper goes beyond the logistics of this transformation to get at the meaning of China's ascendancy and newfound influence. Letting slip his past as a Cold warrior, he hints at a coming, global ideological battle with section titles like "Confucius Versus...