Contest of the Century

By sea and on the airwaves, by dollar and yuan, a contest has begun that will shape the next century.
China´s rise has entered a critical phase, one that represents a new and formidable challenge to the West. Having spent the last three decades focused solely on growing its economy, China now aims to translate its considerable economic heft into political and military influence around the globe. With its new navy, China is trying to ease the US out of Asia and re-assert its traditional leadership in the region. Beijing is planning to make the renminbi the principal international currency, toppling the American dollar. And by investing billions to export its media companies overseas, it hopes to control the global debate about democracy, intervention and human rights.
In The Contest of the Century, award-winning journalist Geoff Dyer shows how China and the US are now embarking on a great power-style competition that will dominate the century. Mixing pride and insecurity, nationalist edge and frustrated ambitions, China has started to behave like an aspiring great power by trying shape the world to its own ends.
A former Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times and one of the few foreign journalists ever to interview Premier Wen Jiabao, Dyer provides a unique portrait of the energies and anxieties that are driving China´s ambitious agenda. Yet he also shows why China may struggle to unseat the US; China´s designs are provoking intense anxiety, especially in Asia, and America´s alliances have deep roots. As The Contest of the Century shows us, their tussle for influence will be the most significant global power struggle of the coming decades, and it will shape the future for everyone.