China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. By Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 164 pp. $16.95/£9.99 (paper).

Particularly with the rise of China and the evolution of Sino-US relations, academia is still divided on how to evaluate China's past, present, and future. As Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, and the co-founder of a blog entitled The China Beat, Jeffrey Wasserstrom has proven expertise and qualifications in China studies. This does make China in the 21st Century more inclusive, and it offers contributions to "normalize discussions of China" (p. xv).

This impressive book features two thematic sections. In the first section (chs. 1-3), "Historical Legacies," Wasserstrom gives an illuminating overview of China's two-millennia history, and examines the corresponding impacts on contemporary China. The following pages (chs. 4-6) analyze contemporary Chinese society, question some fallacies about China, and predict the tendencies of Sino-US relations in the foreseeable future. At the end of the book are reading suggestions and notes for further study.

For the literature of China studies, this book corrects four fallacies about China, and provides moderate contributions to establish a balanced approach to...