The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower

This is an excellent read. For those who know only a little about modern China and how it works politically, this will definitely open your eyes. The author has no political affiliation, but when you reach the end of the book you will understand very clearly why Trump is handling China the way he is.

This is a must read book. Every American should read this book to better understand Chinese motivations and actions taken so far. Even though it is a few years old, the insights gained from a better understanding of US/China relations will help strengthen American resolve.

Dr. Michael Pillsbury's book, "The Hundred Year Marathon" may be the most useful and insightful book on China I have read. The subtitle of this book explains why. “China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower”.This book and the force of his strategic intellect transformed thinking in Washington on China, rescuing it from decades of defeatist inertia.This month, Pillsbury produced a savvy American trade deal for Trump with China, despite hysterical doomsday predictions from the media and the establishment. Pillsbury helped Trump overpower China’s wealthy lobby on K Street, led by President Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright. A dangerous trade war was prevented and America’s farmers were big winners along with the rest of us.The first difficult strategic victory Pillsbury achieved was inside the Reagan administration but the media barely covered it, Pillsbury defeated deep state resistance against providing Stinger missiles to the freedom fighters in Afghanistan who defeated the Red Army. This shocked the evil empire and freed 21 nations from communist tyranny in three years. We defeated a trillion dollar enemy by spending ten times less than the price of an aircraft carrier, and losing NO (!!!) American lives.This victory proved the desire of people overseas to be free is America’s most cost-efficient weapon, but the military industrial complex and the Washington establishment still hates it because the spread of freedom endangers their own power and profitsPillsbury increases the odds for Trump to “make us tired of winning” This book marshals the author's unique insights and experiences to demolish conventional wisdom. Dr. Pillsbury has efficiently equipped me with the background knowledge and history to evaluate the credibility of articles about this rapidly expanding power and the impact it will have on us sooner rather than later. The one shortcoming is that Mr. Pillsbury has missed the decision of the Chinese elite to incorporate Alvin Toffler's third wave theory as part of its national strategy in 1982. This decision has kicked off a series of annual Chinese GDP growth rates of 7 to 10%, positioning them to pass us much sooner than anyone expected..

Let me be honest - I have not finished this book. But about halfway through, the repetition is not helping me want to keep going. It feels like a long pamphlet that someone thought should be a book.The main points are terribly important - it is a book (in one form or another) that everyone should read, and the author clearly points out (and points out and points out) the essential elements in the threat that China presents to the United States and ultimately to the world. He gradually adds elements - and I have lived in foreign countries where I have seen the Chinese plan at work, first hand and up close and I have been issuing the same warnings for almost 30 years.But as far as I have gotten - the basic theme is laid out and like a mediocre teacher dealing with a slow class, the points are made again and again. Now the last sections may open up new horizons, and if so, I will modify these notes.On one hand, I urge people to read it. On the other - if you jump jump before the end, you will have received the essential message.

Ten years ago (2015) Michael Pillsbury published this book The Hundred Year Marathon. Pillsbury is fluent in Mandarin and an expert on Chinese history and military strategy having advised several presidents. This book is just as relevant today in 2025, maybe more so. I can only pray our new administration will "do something impactful" regarding this existential threat. "Since the turn of the millennium, the PRC has pilfered trillions of dollars from the US economy through industrial espionage and intellectual property theft, deployed diplomatic threats and military coercion against the U.S. and its partners and allies, compromised the security of countless Americans with malicious apps and spyware, faciltated export of "deadly" fentanyl precursors, need I go on?This authoritarian regime in Beijing with its global ambitions, growing power and values diametrically opposed to Americas own, poses the greatest threat the United States has faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union".If you want an objective and thoughtful accounting on the CCPs long term strategy, this book is for you.You won't be disappointed.