Anthony H. Cordesman and Martin Kleiber, Chinese Military Modernization: Force Development and Strategic Capabilities (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2007), 226 pp., $24.95.
Bates Gill, Rising Star: China's New Security Diplomacy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2007), 267 pp., $28.95.
Susan L. Shirk, China: Fragile Superpower (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 336 pp., $27.00.
Gordon Chang, The Coming Collapse of China (New York: Random House, 2001), 346 pp., $26.95.
Kenneth B. Pyle, Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose (New York: PublicAffairs, 2007), 420 pp., $29.95.
Richard J. Samuels, Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), 277 pp., $29.95.
THE VIEW that sometime during this century a "changing of the guard" will occur, when China will displace the United States in much the same way as America did Britain, is widely held. It unites liberals and conservatives, optimists and pessimists, most of whom accept the proposition that "the East is back", with China leading the pack. The debate is over when the shift will happen and what a world that currently bears an American stamp will look like after China has become Mr. Big.
