| Author | Howard W. French |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | China |
| Publisher | Knopf |
Publication date | 2017 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 352 |
| ISBN | 978-0385353328 |
Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power is a 2017 book by American journalist Howard W. French, in which the author examines China's historical ideological development and analyzes how this might shape its foreign and domestic policy as it becomes increasingly politically, economically, and militarily powerful.
Summary
National humiliation
French dedicates chapter 1 to analyzing China's historical relationship with Japan, particularly with regard to the Ryukyu Islands, which both countries today claim sovereignty over but which Japan de facto controls.
Island barbarians
French devotes chapter 2 to analyzing China's view of the South China Sea, which it views as largely its sovereign territory. In particular, China claims that it has "historical rights" to a vast expanse of the sea known as the nine-dash line. French claims that these claims provide an understanding of "China's ambivalence [to] the international system and to the continuing resonance of a certain imperial perspective—tian xia.[1]: 58
The gullet of the world
A pacified south
Sons of heaven, setting suns
Claims and markers
Reception
In the New York Times, Judith Shapiro calls the book an "exhaustively researched and fascinating account of geopolitics", and comments favorably on French's thesis, stating that French "shows convincingly that China’s goal is now to displace the American barbarians and correct historic humiliations imposed by those who dethroned China from its rightful position at the center of the world".[2] Tyler Rothmar, writing in The Japan Times, calls the book a "valuable resource" says that French rests his arguments on "wide and thoroughly referenced reading".[3] Kirkus Reviews calls the book a "lucid if stolid overview of regional history, useful for students of Pacific affairs in playing out scenarios of what might happen next".[4]