Death By China Confronting The Dragon A Global Call To Action Paperback May 2026

1. Economic Assassination: The Weaponization of Mercantilism

Any credible diagnosis of global disorder must look inward. The hollowing out of Western manufacturing was not only due to China but also due to shareholder capitalism, financialization, and Reagan-Thatcher era neoliberalism. The erosion of democracy owes as much to social media algorithms designed in Silicon Valley as to TikTok. The book risks projecting all evils onto an external dragon while absolving the West of its own structural failures. This is the classic scapegoat mechanism—and historically, it leads not to revival but to fascism. The erosion of democracy owes as much to

The “death” metaphor ignores the reality of deep, mutual dependency. The global economy is not a zero-sum duel but a complex web. Apple designs in California and assembles in Zhengzhou; a U.S. ban on Chinese rare earths would paralyze American EVs; Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasuries help fund American deficits. Attempting a surgical decoupling would cause acute economic infarction on both sides—job losses, inflation, and a global depression. The cure would kill the patient faster than the disease. The “death” metaphor ignores the reality of deep,

If such a book existed, it would belong to a well-established genre: the “China threat” literature that emerged in the post–Cold War era, intensified after the 2008 financial crisis, and reached a fever pitch during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent technological decoupling. Its likely author would be a former intelligence official, a protectionist trade economist, or a military strategist—someone who views China’s rise through a zero-sum, realist lens. The paperback format suggests mass-market distribution, aimed not at academics but at anxious citizens, policymakers, and voters. The paperback format suggests mass-market distribution

The hypothetical opening chapters of Death By China would likely present a triad of mortal wounds inflicted by Beijing on the international system.