Book Review: Hidden Hand – Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World

There have also been flow-on benefits for the rest of the world.

China’s opening up has of course not led to Western-style democracy, and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. Indeed, under Xi, the CCP’s position has been consolidated and many of the reforms of the 1990s and 2000s have been wound back. Human rights have been seriously curbed, most recently in Hong Kong.

But Hidden Hand’s presentation of a single, continuous CCP Leninist agenda ignores the existence of different views among the leadership and elsewhere in China, including those who favor further liberal reform (as described in Richard McGregor’s 2019 book, Xi Jinping: The Backlash).

And it fails to appreciate the underlying contradictions of China’s “socialist market economy” and Xi’s “China Dream”, which offer avenues for Western leaders and academics to influence debates in China through engagement – as has happened over the past 30 years.

As the main coordinator of the Greater China Australia Dialogue on Public Administration, which organizes annual workshops of scholars and practitioners from across the PRC (including Hong Kong and Macau) and Taiwan, I have witnessed some of the winding back of academic freedoms since Xi’s 2016 restrictions on social science teaching and research. This includes some of the specific CCP restrictions mentioned in Hidden Hand.

But this surely makes it even more important to continue the engagement while resisting the pressures involved.

Similarly, I am not at all convinced by the book’s attacks on any cooperation with the Belt and Road Initiative.

While the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has more sound governance, there are similar arguments for participation in BRI, providing support from the inside for transparency, proper cost-benefit analysis of projects and good understanding of debt obligations. It would also limit opportunities for China to pursue improper methods of influence.

How the West Should Respond to Chinese Influence
The book’s afterword provides a slightly more moderate position on what should be done to counter Chinese influence moving forward. It still overplays its hand in promoting an “active pushback strategy” and its recommendation that the Western “elites who acquiesce to or actively support Beijing deserve public scrutiny and robust criticism.”

But the other recommendations have merit: defending democratic institutions through greater transparency and foreign interference laws, addressing the underfunding of universities and financial challenges facing our media, reducing vulnerability of our industries to CCP pressure and promoting more alliances, including with developing countries.

We cannot lose faith in liberal economics as Hamilton and Ohlberg seem to suggest, relying only on democratic forces to ensure freedom. The truth is, we need both.

Andrew Podger is Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.