Book-to-book review: ‘The Avoidable War’ and ‘The Changing World Order’

10 key re-enforcing points from former Australian PM Kevin Rudd and investor Ray Dalio on the possibility of a China-US war

About the authors:

Both author’s have unique and unprecedented access to China’s business and political elite.

Rudd has worked in and around Chinese politics for 40 years since he was a student and one of the few Western politicians — let alone prime ministers — who is fluent in Mandarin. He is now the CEO and president of the Asian Society Policy Institute.

Dalio has spent decades visiting and working with Chinese businesses as since the head of the world’s largest global macro hedge fund since the country started opening up its capital markets in the past 30 years.

Both books are written for a Western audience to put them inside the head of China’s policymakers so they can better understand Chinese culture, and, also, so Westerners can see themselves from the other’s perspective.

While Rudd believes a war between US and China is a “possibility rather than a probability” he nonetheless describes this as “The Decade of Living Dangerously” as the tone of officials of both sides has…