Susan L. Shirk’s ‘illuminating’ book on China’s rise wins Lionel Gelber Prize

TORONTO – An examination of China’s evolution from fragile superpower to global heavyweight has won the $50,000 Lionel Gelber Prize.

Susan L. Shirk’s portrait “Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise,” published by Oxford University Press, was named the top book on international affairs published in English.

The award citation praises the U.S. scholar and expert in Chinese politics for writing that is “illuminating, disturbing, and utterly persuasive.”

Shirk’s book beat out finalists “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology,” by Chris Miller; “Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism,” by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way; “Slouching Toward Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century” by J. Bradford DeLong; and “Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century,” by Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman.

The Lionel Gelber Prize is awarded annually by a jury of international scholars and practitioners in partnership with University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Shirk is a research professor and chair of the 21st Century China Center at UC San Diego and from 1997 to 2000 she served as U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2023.

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