Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- "A coherent body of thought and action" : grand strategy and hegemonic order -- "The party leads everything" : nationalism, Leninism, and the Chinese Communist Party -- "New cold wars have begun" : the trifecta and the new American threat -- "Grasping the assassin's mace" : implementing military blunting -- "Demonstrate benign intentions" : implementing political blunting -- "Permanent normal trading relations" : implementing economic blunting -- "A change in the balance of power" : the financial crisis and the dawn of building -- "Make more offensive moves" : implementing military building -- "Establish regional architecture" : implementing political building -- "Aboard our development train" : implementing economic building -- "Toward the world's center stage" : American decline and China's global ambition -- "Standing tall and seeing far" : the ways and means of China's global expansion -- An asymmetric strategy for US-China competition -- Conclusion.

"For more than a century, no US adversary or coalition of adversaries - not Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, or even the Soviet Union - has ever reached sixty percent of US GDP. China is the sole exception, and it is fast emerging into a global superpower that could rival, if not eclipse, the United States. What does China want, does it have a grand strategy to achieve it, and what should the United States do about it? The Long Game draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, as well as careful analysis of China's conduct, to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking readers behind the Party's closed doors, this book uncovers Beijing's long, methodical game to displace America from regional and global order through three sequential "strategies of displacement." The book shows how China's strategy is profoundly shaped by key events that change its perception of American power - the end of the Cold War, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the populist elections of 2016, and the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Finally, the book offers a comprehensive yet "asymmetric" plan for an effective US response to the China challenge. Ironically, the proposed approach takes a page from Beijing's strategic playbook to undermine China's ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for- dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan"--