Beyond Power Transitions : The Lessons of East Asian History and the Future of U.S.-China Relations

China's threat to U.S. global hegemony has dominated international policy discussion for years. But the power transition debate-whether the growing power, China, is bound to challenge and overtake the bigger power, the United States-relies on a theory almost exclusively based on European examples from the past 400 years. Xinru Ma and David Kang argue in this concise, incisive book that-as China is not an eighteenth-century European state fighting for survival against a number of similarly-sized states-China's example can shed new light on how great powers behave. China is a massive and ancient civilization centrally located in the East Asian region. Upon closer inspection, China itself has historically worried very little about expansionist war from a rising power, let alone carrying one out. An examination of over 1,500 years in East Asian history reveals that power transition wars almost never created a transition in power between different nations. More prevalent in East Asian history is dynastic transition, with seventeen out of twenty regime changes resulting from internal rebellion. Had power transition theory started with East Asian history rather than European history, it would emphasize the domestic risks and constraints on great powers. If scholars and policymakers want a meaningful discussion of a way out of today's great power conflict between the United States and China, rather than threat inflation, then they need a more careful analysis of both contemporary China and the historical record. The lessons of East Asian history are clear: both contemporary China and the United States face considerable internal challenges that are more pressing than external threats--

Author: Xinru Ma

Publisher: NA

Publication Date: Oct 08, 2024

Number of Pages: NA pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 0231205376

ISBN-13: 9780231205375