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China's Rise in Asia: Promises and Perils. By Robert G. Sutler. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005. 297 pages. $69.00 ($24.95 paper).
This is a carefully researched, well reasoned, and balanced assessment of the most pervasive security challenge of our times, the emergence of China as a political, economic, and military power. Even more than the threat from Islamic terror, the strength of China will go far in determining how our children and grandchildren live out their hopes and ambitions.
The author, Robert G. Sutter, a scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., asserts an intriguing argument: "China's approach to foreign affairs after the Cold War is strongly influenced by and related to the United States. Chinese leaders consistently view the United States as the greatest power in Asia and the most important power affecting Chinese interests in the region."
At the same time, he writes, "China's behavior toward the United States varied between postures of confrontation and cordiality." For the most part, China's leaders have calculated that they "needed the United States for economic and technological progress." In particular, China's export market in the United States in 2004 ran to $197 billion, second only to Canada's $256 billion and well ahead of Mexico's $156 billion and Japan's $130 billion.
Even so, confrontations pop up frequently. As this review is written, a Chinese...