The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power Hardcover – Illustrated, June 8, 2015

Thomas Christensen, a distinguished Princeton academic, spent time in D.C. handling the China Portfolio at the State Department during the first G.W. Bush term, and his analysis of U.S.-China relations today benefits from that exposure to the multiple-agenda/appearance-reality complexities that define much of the current U.S. discourse on what China is and where it's going. Early chapters, therefore, display a healthy willingness to question viewpoints often treated as Accepted Wisdom, and an ability to distinguish cant from sobriety in the China field. As the book enters its later chapters, however, Christensen's treatment seems to become more and more a defense of Bush Administration actions and ideas, a kind of re-fighting of political and bureaucratic battles that must have sucked a good deal of oxygen out of his official life at the time. On balance, however, he has written a very well informed and nuanced book which deflates much of the "Heat the Boiling Oil" writing on China that proliferates in the market, and in Washington, today. Christensen is a U.S. asset on China policy, from whom we will, hopefully hear more.

As Christensen says in his opening: “By training I am a scholar, not a policymaker or politician.”He is however more; he is an Internationalist who wishes well for the world. Attending the university in Beijing at the time of the uprising in 1989 he was in on the transformation of China from an ideological Marxist Communists setting to the rewrite of the ideology as a nationalistic developing nation intent on overcoming “One hundred years of foreign subjugation,” the cover for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) today.Returning to the US as an academic he evolved into a China Hand used during the Bush administration in the state department in various guises and has keep keen observations on the interactions of the Clinton, Bush and now the Obama interactions with China. For students of International Relations he gives a polished treatment of how that relation has flourished, faltered, failed and recovered over the years in rich details. He core thesis being that the role of these two great powers is not a zero sum game but one of mutual necessary interaction of countries in need of one another due to globalization and their dominate functions; his hope being that they can agree on what will made a sustainable future for all parties. If this sound a bit ‘goody two shoes’ it is not; it rolls out of hard analysis that is a delight to follow, if sometimes redundant.He is a respected scholar and as such interactive with his counterparts in the PRC which helps him judge what is being thought and proposed at a high level of decision making. He quotes Professor Yan Xuetong*, the director of the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing as one who has a very different notion of how the two powers will relate to one another over time, with China one day playing the dominate role based on an ancient Chinese philosophy called humane authority. Different routes to the future, but interestingly, reasons to agree along the way.No crystal ball in Christensen’s analysis but an abundance of clear thinking by someone who has been paying attention for many years. Read it if you have any interest in International Affairs.*Yan Xuetong has recently stated that he does not see North Korea as a PRC ally; Prof. Christensen would be very pleased with that conclusion with the effect of bringing Pyongyang in to line with nonproliferation agreements for the area once again.Q. and A.: Yan Xuetong Urges China to Adopt a More Assertive Foreign PolicySinosphereBy YUFAN HUANG FEB. 9, 2016, New York Times.

a little disappointing; was hoping for more from the author, who regularly sets himself apart from the rest of the China-watching crowd. biggest complaint is that he doesn't deliver on the subtitle of the book, pretty thin on the "shaping" of china's choices. but if you are interested in getting a good feel for the different, complex dynamics at play in China and understanding more about what China behaves the way it does on the international stage, there's definitely plenty here for you to dig into.

This book is not for the faint of heart. A great deal of serious scholarship and analysis that, for a more casual reader, adds up to a simple insight: Dealing with China will require patience, civility, and a great deal of in depth knowledge of their culture. We (America) really have no serious deep beef with China as, say, Japan does (with China) over WWII and incidents like the Nanjing horror. And, we have serious complimentary interests with China like greater cross Pacific trade/diplomatic relations with other countries (Japan, Philippines), resolution of the Taiwan question, laws of the sea, national security, and isolation/resolution of NKorea conundrum. This book is really more of a work for serious geopolitical students and working professionals in diplomacy and world governance.

Books like this provide both a personal perspective of how the actual China-US relationship *works* - at the level of the staffers actually crafting policy. They reveal details that would otherwise be missed out in the chatter of the commentariat. Real foreign relations work is complex more than opinion columns can imagine. Hope more people read this and appreciate the nuances.

This is an outstanding study of China’s rise and its implications for the United States. The author combines extensive experience at the highest levels of diplomacy with the analytical gifts of a distinguished social scientist. The result is a book which is simultaneously up-to-date, comprehensive, detailed, and highly readable. For the lay reader, The China Challenge provides the best one-volume introduction to the major issues in China’s foreign relations currently available. For academic audiences, who may specialize in specific aspects of Chinese foreign policy, The China Challenge provides a rigorous holistic assessment of the implications of China’s rise for the international political order. In discussing US foreign policy, the author moves beyond the simplistic division between China hawks and China doves to argue for a third path: acknowledging the profound reality of China’s rise – including the challenges that it presents – and channeling those dynamic and turbulent energies in constructive ways.

Thomas J Christensen, a career diplomat and China hand, lays out a broad ranging analysis of Chinese foreign policy that transcends ideological prejudices and presents one of the most informed analyses of China available.Christensen distinguishes from the pessimists, who believe in the Thucydides Trap, and explains how China and United States interests are broadly aligned, and the main obstacles to a closer alignment are that essential currency, trust.Christensen offers a broad sweep of Chinese foreign relations, mainly through the prism of United States interests, but also with sufficient attention provided to domestic and ideological factors shaping the decision making capabilities of both countries.In contrast to pessimistic news coverage, Christensen outlines how China has adopted more pragmatic and conciliatory postures on matters ranging from North Korea, to Iran, to Sudan and the Gulf of Aden, to other multilateral matters such as Syria and Libya.Christensen identifies China's foreign policy doctrine of non-interference, and has illustrated how this is not a rigid straight jacket, as many believe, and that China has taken unexpected steps, such as voting in favour of the UN Security Council resolution that referred Libya to the International Criminal Court.Additionally, the book also covers key issues such as China's evolving posture on climate change, but sadly lacks much analysis of One Belt One Road, mentioned only in the afterword.A particular strength of the book is the analysis of China's North Korea posture, illustrating why North Korea is an important ally to China, and the role of China in the Korean War is a continuing symbol of national pride, but also the evolving nature of China's North Korean policy, such as stating that the security alliance is conditional on North Korea's good behaviour, and Christensen's insight that Xi Jinping is far less tolerant or indulging of North Korea's Kim Dynasty than his predecessors.In all, this is a very well informed and comprehensive overview of China's foreign policy, and a much more positive view than other titles, such as The Hundred Year Marathon.Christensen has provided a well informed and scholarly analysis, that is recommended to all China watchers.

Husband loved the book.

It might help you to understand the Chinese history and a bit of their mind set to expand into the Pacific and world stage. But it also includes a bit too much of unnecessary details, say, on US- Chinese diplomatic day- to day exchanges, I am afraind.