China Unbound

Winner of the 2022 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing


As the world's second-largest economy, China is extending its influence across the globe with the complicity of democratic nations.


Joanna Chiu has spent a decade tracking China's propulsive rise, from the political aspects of the multi-billion-dollar "New Silk Road" global investment project to a growing sway on foreign countries and multilateral institutions through "United Front" efforts.


For too long, Western societies have mishandled or simply ignored Beijing's actions out of narrow self-interest. Decades of willful misinterpretation have over time become complicity in the toxic diplomacy, human rights abuses and foreign interference seen from China today, Chiu argues.


Engaging chapters transport readers to a frozen lake in Russia, protests in Hong Kong, underground churches in Beijing, and exile Uyghur communities in Turkey, exposing Beijing's high-tech surveillance and aggressive measures resulting in human rights violations against those who challenge its power.


The new world disorder documented in China Unbound lays out the disturbing implications for global stability, prosperity, and civil rights everywhere.