Written by two university professors, this timely book was published at a time when China was flexing its economic muscles around the world. The most recent example of Chinese economic could be seen in June 2005 when the state-owned energy company CNOOC launched a bid to acquire the California oil and gas producer Unocal for a stunning 18.5 billion dollars. Unocal was already negotiating with the American company Chevron for 16.3 billion dollars. The Chinese bid took the industry by surprise, and it worried US legislators.

Beijing's growing economic power will not diminish even though the Unocal deal fell through. This book deserves a prominent place in classrooms for students of Asian politics as well. It describes not only the evolution of Beijing's policies since the establishment of the communist government, but also the growing nationalist trends in the vast land. The authors encourage students to discuss the issues covered in this book, propose discussion questions. Such debate would certainly lead to greater understanding of China's behavior as China takes on the world's great powers, including the US, and encourages its people to express their nationalistic sentiments at home. Anti-Western and anti-Japanese demonstrations took place in China in May 1919 after European powers met at Versailles at the end of World War I and decided that German-held territories in China should be handed over to the Japanese. Chinese authorities urged students and intellectuals to take to the streets on May 4, 1919 to protest foreign interference. And since 1949, nationalism has been a weapon with which Beijing authorities have stuck at foreign intervention and at separatism, fore example in the case of Taiwan. Chinese nationalism grows stronger to counter Taiwan's desire for independence.

This book explores different aspects of China's relationship with its Asian neighbors, including Japan and Taiwan, and the US. US-China ties have remained highly important, and the authors propose a series of related questions. Two questions are worth highlighting here: (1) In the 21st century, to what extent are China and the US likely to be rivals or partners in the emerging global system? (2) Why is the US more likely than any other country to have the greatest impact on China? With the passage of time, is the US impact on China likely to increase, decrease, or remain stable, and why?

These questions cannot be answered immediately. They are aimed at promoting discussion, which can be helped by citing examples such as the attempt by CNOOC to buy Unocal, and other Chinese bids to acquire American brand names like Maytag. It is just the beginning. A Chinese company now owns IBM's production of PCs. Obviously more acquisitions will certainly follow. China emerged on the international stage only in recent years.

In 1991, the bipolar world dominated by the democratic West and the Communist Bloc collapsed with the demise of the Soviet Union, and the US became the only superpower. That position of dominance has been shaken by China's growing economic development and its efforts to secure energy resources around the world to keep its economy going. China has become more committed to UN programs, including peacekeeping operations, from its position as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. In the meantime, it has joined the World Trade Organization and strengthened its standing in other international bodies.

The authors say that if China becomes an Asian hegemony in the 21st century, it would become an opponent to Japan, which in return would seek to match China's armies or even consider using ground forces against the mainland or in other parts of Asia. On the other hand, China continues to fear Japan's past militarism and recently launched a world campaign to prevent Japan from becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Japan would also join other nations to counter Chinese hegemony in Asia. Those are troubling developments which for the moment cannot be settled. The authors say there are alternative scenarios to the perception of future conflict between China and the rest of the world. Those scenarios should be considered by China in order to avoid such conflict. Obviously discussions have just begun to try to understand China's role in the world. One question asked by the authors is: In the promotion of world peace and international security, is China part of the problem or part of the solution? The answer should come from Beijing first.