DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I’m Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross, who’s off this week. In 1941, millions of Americans were shocked when Japanese forces attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Our guest today, Michael Beckley, begins his new book with co-author Hal Brands by positing the notion that the Chinese military could take advantage of a disputed election result in the United States in 2025 to attack Taiwan and, in the process, hit a U.S. aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile, provoking a war between China and the United States.
Beckley and Brands’ book argues that China is making increasingly aggressive moves against its neighbors in Asia and defining its future in terms of a strategic battle with the United States for influence in a changing world. Beckley writes that, in recent years, China has embarked on a military…
