Death by China
{{short description|2011 book by Peter Navarro}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Death by China
| image = Death by china-confronting the dragon.jpg
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| author = Peter Navarro
Greg Autry
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| country = United States
| language = English
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| publisher = Pearson Prentice Hall
| pub_date = May 15, 2011
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| media_type = Hardcover
| pages = 300
| isbn = 978-0-13-218023-8
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Death by China: Confronting the Dragon – A Global Call to Action is a 2011 non-fiction book by Peter Navarro and Greg Autry that chronicles the alleged threats to America's economic dominance in the 21st century posed by China and the Chinese Communist Party, "from currency manipulation and abusive trade policies, to deadly consumer products".
A feature-length documentary film based on the book, narrated by Martin Sheen and also titled Death by China, was released in 2012.{{cite news|last=Perkins| first=Olivera|url=http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/09/film_says_us_manufacturing_is.html |title=Economist Peter Navarro says U.S. manufacturing is suffering 'Death by China'|work=The Plain Dealer|date =7 September 2012|access-date=2018-08-25}}{{cite news|last=Wong| first=Venessa| url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-22/q-and-a-peter-navarro-on-americas-death-by-china | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824025815/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-22/q-and-a-peter-navarro-on-americas-death-by-china | url-status=dead | archive-date=August 24, 2012 |title=Q&A: Peter Navarro on America's Death by China|work=Bloomberg Businessweek|date =22 August 2012|access-date=2018-08-25}} The documentary was financed by Nucor steel corporation, and has been endorsed by Donald Trump.{{cite news |last1=Timiraos |first1=Nick |last2=Ballhaus |first2=Rebecca |title=Navarro’s Ties to Nucor Highlight Trump Advisers’ Steel-Industry Connections |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/navarros-ties-to-nucor-highlight-trump-advisers-steel-industry-connections-1521192602?st=aoenR9&reflink=article_copyURL_share |access-date=11 March 2025 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=16 March 2018}}
Themes and content
Navarro argues that China is a "heavily armed, totalitarian regime intent on regional hegemony and bent on global domination". He says China, which he frequently refers as "the Dragon" or "Dragonland",{{cite web |date=March 13, 2017 |title=Trump's Top China Expert Isn't a China Expert |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/13/peter-navarro-profile-national-trade-council-donald-trump-china-expert/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320235241/https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/13/peter-navarro-profile-national-trade-council-donald-trump-china-expert/ |archive-date=March 20, 2017 |access-date=March 20, 2017 |website=Foreign Policy}} violates fair trade by "illegal export subsidies and currency manipulation, effectively flooding the U.S. markets" and unfairly making it "virtually impossible" for American companies to compete. It is a critique of "global capitalism" including foreign labor practices and environmental protection.
The book's foreword was written by Tang Baiqiao, a student activist during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, now resident in the US and a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump.{{cite news|last=Feng|first=Zhaoyin |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49092612 |title='Why I translate all of Trump's tweets into Chinese'|publisher=BBC News|date=9 August 2019|access-date=2020-04-24}} Navarro describes the book as a "survival guide" to outmaneuver "the planet’s most efficient assassin" and warns the readers about buying Chinese products.
The book features illustrations explaining how China utilizes "eight pillars" to erode manufacturing jobs in the United States. These methods include providing export subsidies, manipulating and undervaluing currency, engaging in counterfeiting, piracy, and intellectual property theft, avoiding environmental regulations to enhance domestic production, enforcing minimal worker health and safety standards, imposing import tariffs and quotas, employing predatory pricing and tactics to eliminate foreign competitors, and adopting protectionist measures to block foreign companies from operating in China.
The book cites a claim by Ron Vara, a fictitious Harvard economics student, "The Manufacturing Dragon is voracious. The Colonial Dragon is relentless. The American Eagle is asleep at the wheel.",[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/us/politics/peter-navarro-ron-vara.html Peter Navarro Invented an Expert for His Books, Based on Himself] Alan Rappeport, New York Times, Oct. 16, 2019 which was later discovered to be an invention of Navarro ('Ron Vara' being an anagram of Navarro's surname). In response, publisher Prentice Hall stated that a disclaimer will be added to future editions of the book.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/22/one-important-thing-people-are-missing-about-peter-navarro-ron-vara/ One important thing people are missing about Peter Navarro and 'Ron Vara'] Aaron Blake, Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2019
Reception
In a 2011 review, Chriss Street of The Huffington Post described the book as "a muckraker's call to confront the dangers of America's dance with the Chinese dragon in the 21st century."{{cite web | url = https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chriss-street/book-review-death-by-chin_b_882644.html | title = Book Review: Death by China: Confronting the Dragon | last = Street | first = Chriss | date = 23 June 2011 | work = The Huffington Post | access-date = 2018-07-07}}
File:Professor Peter Navarro of the Business School at University of California, Irvine talks his work "Death by China" and how China cheats in the world trade system @ University of Michigan-4.jpg talks about his book Death by China at the University of Michigan in 2012]]
In a 2012 article, Andrew O'Hehir of Salon commented that Navarro's "dramatic overkill is both unfortunate and unnecessary, because the questions Navarro asks about our deformed and dependent relationship with China are legitimate and troubling[,]" and "[m]uch of the argument Navarro assembles in 'Death by China' is unassailable as to its basic facts, even if the tone and manner of presentation leave much to be desired."{{cite news|last=O'Hehir| first=Andrew|url = http://www.salon.com/2012/08/22/chinas_not_so_secret_plan_for_world_domination/ |title=China's not-so-secret plan for world domination| work= Salon|date=21 August 2012|access-date=2018-08-25}} Similarly, Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times found that the "alarming and alarmist" film "undercuts its argument with an abundance of inflammatory language and cheesy graphics" and "is also unabashedly one-sided and is short on solutions" but added that "its message, despite the hyperbole, certainly warrants examination and discussion."{{cite news|last= Genzlinger| first=Neil| authorlink=Neil Genzlinger|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/movies/death-by-china-documentary-directed-by-peter-navarro.html |title=Casting Blame for Jobs That Vanish| work=The New York Times|date= 23 August 2012| access-date=2018-08-25}}
Reviewing the documentary in 2012, Sam Adams of the Los Angeles Times found that the "important political argument at the core of Peter Navarro's agitprop documentary" was "drowned out by xenophobic hysteria and exaggerations so rampant it becomes impossible to tell light from heat." He concluded by saying "Substituting rhetoric for argument, 'Death by China' doesn't preach to the choir so much as it holds a revival meeting in an empty tent."{{cite news| url = https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2012-aug-16-la-et-mn-death-by-china-capsule-20120817-story.html | title = Review: Emotions, not economics, guide 'Death by China' | last = Adams | first = Sam | date = 12 August 2012 | work= Los Angeles Times | access-date = 2018-07-07 | quote = 'Death by China' plays hard and loose with the facts as it examines the trade relationship between the U.S. and China.}}
Ronnie Scheib, from Variety, says "One need not fully subscribe to Peter Navarro's demonization to appreciate his lucid wake-up call to the imminent dangers of the huge U.S.-China trade imbalance and its disastrous impact on the American economy."{{cite web| last=Scheib| first=Ronnie | title=Death by China|url=https://variety.com/2012/film/reviews/death-by-china-1117948072/ |website=Variety|date=16 August 2012|access-date=2018-08-25}}
Rotten Tomatoes gives the documentary a score of 33% based on reviews from 12 critics, with an average rating of 5/10.{{cite web | url = https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/death_by_china/ | title = Death by China (2012) | website = Rotten Tomatoes | access-date = 2018-07-07}} Comments include "It is ... unabashedly one-sided and is short on solutions" (Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times), "[A] rabid piece of agitprop, which swamps a number of legitimate arguments against the current trade arrangement between the U.S. and China with the strident brushstrokes of a bad editorial cartoon" (Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club),{{cite web| last=Tobias |first=Scott |url=https://www.avclub.com/death-by-china-1798173932 |title=Death By China |website= The A.V. Club |date=23 August 2012 |access-date=2018-08-25}} and "Angry, fatally biased but watchable documentary ranting at China for its transgressions and damage done to the U.S. economy cries out for second opinions from other corners besides those damning" (Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal International).{{cite news|last=Toumarkine |first=Doris| url=http://www.filmjournal.com/content/film-review-death-china| title=Film Review: Death by China| work=Film Journal International| date=17 August 2012| access-date=2018-08-25}}
According to a 2017 article by Zeeshan Aleem from Vox, President Donald Trump's endorsement was featured on the documentary's official website, "DEATH BY CHINA is right on. This important documentary depicts our problem with China with facts, figures and insight. I urge you to see it."{{Cite web |last=Aleem |first=Zeeshan |date=April 6, 2017 |title=I read Trump’s trade adviser’s anti-China book. It’s wilder than you can imagine. |url=https://www.vox.com/world/2017/4/6/14697762/china-trump-trade-navarro |access-date=December 10, 2024 |website=Vox}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://www.deathbychina.com/}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q123536820|title=Death by China |description= (film) }}
- {{YouTube|mMlmjXtnIXI|Death By China: How America Lost Its Manufacturing Base (Official Version)}}
{{Economy of China}}
Category:2011 non-fiction books
Category:American non-fiction books
Category:Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States
Category:Books about the People's Republic of China
Category:Books by Peter Navarro
Category:Documentary films about China
Category:Economic history of the People's Republic of China
Category:English-language non-fiction books