Charles Edel, Center for Strategic and International Studies Australia chair, hosted a live book launch Aug. 1 featuring Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, author of the book, "Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized its Economy to Confront the World."
The book examines China's economic rise and how the Chinese Communist Party has leveraged its dominant role in the global economy to coerce companies and governments worldwide to align with its political preferences, according to a CSIS release announcing the book launch.
"How I chose to get involved with China in the first place was completely random," Allen-Ebrahimian said during the launch. "I grew up in a pretty small town in Texas and had never even had American Chinese food. But in college, I had some options for where I could study abroad, and I pretty randomly just chose China. Within a few weeks of living in Shaman, which is in Fujian Province, I completely fell in love with the language, the history, the culture and the people."
During the launch, Edel suggested they get into the book's thesis by explaining why and when Allen-Ebrahimian decided to write the book. She started by reflecting on the time she lived in China, from 2008 to 2012, and eventually leaving for Washington, DC, to work as a reporter covering China. Most of the Allen-Ebrahimian stories focus on energy reporting.
"I was spending a lot of my energy reporting on what, at the time, was tentatively called China's influence abroad, and now we have different terms to refer to it as this field of study has grown, such as political interference, economic coercion and transnational repression," Allen-Ebrahimian said at the launch. "But this was the early days of around the same time Australia began to have a big debate over China's foreign interference. I was trying to come up with a comprehensive way to understand what was happening and what was the most important factor behind it. Also, what was the source of China's power, and why was it so hard to talk about and think about."
Edel quickly asked about the book's title and if it was a play on words, during the launch.
"Titles matter," he said. "It appears to be a play on words involving the title. There are a lot of fascinating stories and profound insights in the book too. But can you explain the title? I'm assuming you picked the title, which wasn't imposed on you."
Allen-Ebrahimian clarified the title was not imposed on her and that she loves it because of its clarity.
"There are two meanings here; the first is the set of rules that Beijing wants to impose on the rest of the world, and then the second one is how Beijing rules or how it governs, so it's both of those at the same time, and interestingly, puns don't translate in the Chinese language," she said. "So, the Chinese title is like 'Beijing Governs.'
"An alternative would be Beijing which would be 'Beijing's Rules.' But in any case, you have both meanings in the title," Allen-Ebrahimian added. "A lot of what my book deals with is quite innovative ways that the Chinese government has set up very targeted, almost laser-like ways of gatekeeping its economy based on the actions of external actors, whether individuals, companies or governments. The Chinese government will selectively open and close those gates, a kind of conditioning for the rest of the world."
Allen-Ebrahimian reports on China for Axios. She writes about the role China plays in today’s world and authors the weekly newsletter from Axios on China.
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