Death by China: Confronting the Dragon-A Global Call to Action    by Peter Navarro & Greg Autry Order:  USA  Can Prentice Hall, 2011 (2011) Hardcover, e-Book Read an Excerpt     Reviewed by Bob Walch University of California, Irvine, business professor Peter Navarro and Greg Autry, a UCI PhD candidate, hold little back in setting forth their case for China being the greatest threat that America must contend with in the modern era. In their opening chapter entitled It's Not China Bashing If It's True, the authors charge that Chinese entrepreneurs are 'flooding world markets with a range of bone-crushing, cancer-causing, flammable, poisonous, and otherwise lethal products, foods, and drugs' and then offer a few examples to support this claim. The onslaught continues with, 'China's 'weapons of job destruction' include massive illegal export subsidies, the rampant counterfeiting of U.S. intellectual property, pitifully lax environmental protections, and the pervasive use of slave labor.' Rounding out this chapter are the authors' comments on the Chinese 'voracious appetite' for energy and raw materials, the abuse of their position of responsibility in the United Nations, and their continued military buildup. Wrapping up this opening chapter, Navarro and Autry take to task American business executives, politicians and journalists for being 'fully complicit in the Chinese politics of 'first divide America and then conquer it''. They charge that 'many American corporate executives have become lobbying warriors for China' and that American politicians deserve blame for standing meekly, passively, and ignorantly by as China has had its way with the U.S. manufacturing base and engaged in its massive military buildup. Wow, this is only the first eleven pages of this book! In what follows the reader will learn more about not only China's appalling product safety record, the country's assault on the American economy and the bold and blatant espionage adventures the Asian giant is guilty of, but also a host of other abuses the authors lay at the country's doorstep. But Navarro and Autry's self-proclaimed goal is not just to 'expose and catalogue' China's economic, political, environmental and military misbehavior. Oh no! As they state, 'This book is also meant as a survival guide and call to action at a critical juncture in American and world history. Unless all of us rise up together to confront the Dragon, the rest of our lives and the lives of our children will be far less prosperous – and far more dangerous – than the Golden Age in which many of us grew up.' Although some readers will laud Navarro and Autry as the modern day equivalent of Paul Revere warning of another imminent threat to American security and wellbeing, there are others who would see these two academics as Henny Pennies proclaiming the firmament is falling and we are about to be engulfed in red stars. They probably fit somewhere in between these two extremes, but you'll have to decide for yourself just how much credence to give these two Southern Californians. As an aside, I also thought many of the charges the authors level against China could well have been leveled against the United States not so very long ago. That doesn't meant their charges are not valid; it is just that the shoe is now on the other foot! Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews