Crashback: The Power Clash Between the U.S. and China in the Pacific

"The United States and China are at war," writes Fabey, an award-winning naval correspondent, but it's a "warm war," not a cold or hot one. The United States would win by forcing China to operate peacefully within the international system that made China's economic rise possible, and could lose by being forced out of the Western Pacific. Initial chapters present a breezy history of American power in the Pacific and the precipitous rise of the Chinese navy. Fabey then gives colorful sketches of the ships, common seamen, and top leaders on each side and the series of high-tension Chinese confrontations with American presence in the South China seas since the 1990s. Fabey writes dramatically and specifically of China's new technology and corps of professional, self-confident, even arrogant officers who aim to right China's century of humiliation. They respond only to displays of force, Fabey concludes. The U.S. Navy is richly funded but sometimes lax, complacent, and unsure of its mission; the American defense establishment is reluctant to acknowledge that China might pose a threat.