Although the United States is rightly preoccupied with the threat of Islamist terrorism, Iran’s nuclear program, Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, many of America’s top strategic thinkers believe that America’s greatest challenge in the decades to come will be the rise of China. With its expanding economy and increasing military strength, China is positioning itself to challenge the United States in Asia and, in time, globally.

The Rise of China is a collection of essays about the nature of that challenge and what the U.S. and its allies might do in the areas of foreign and defense affairs to meet it. Contributing authors Michael R. Auslin, Dan Blumenthal, Ellen Bork, Nicholas Eberstadt, Robert Kagan, Gary J. Schmitt, and Ashley J. Tellis describe China’s likely ambitions, the possible policy responses of the U.S. and nations in the region, and the unique problems posed to China’s rise by its own demographic problems and by a democratic Taiwan.

Although China has been a cautious power to date, its leaders continue to see the international scene as fundamentally one of competition. And this perspective is unlikely to change until the regime itself changes. It is this China, the authors of The Rise of China argue, that the U.S. and its allies will be dealing with for some time to come.

Gary J. Schmitt is resident scholar and director of Advanced Strategic Studies at AEI.

Contributors: Michael R. Auslin, Dan Blumenthal, Ellen Bork, Nicholas Eberstadt, Robert Kagan, Gary J. Schmitt, and Ashley J. Tellis.

Praise for The Rise of China

"Since Nixon's opening to China in 1972, eight successive U.S. Presidents have bet that integrating China into the world economy will change China before China changes the international system. This highly readable collection of essays challenges that assumption from the perspectives of history, demographics and military strategy. U.S.-China cooperation has expanded in recent years and that trend is likely to continue, but the authors in this volume remind us that China's future is not pre-ordained and that the United States must take a more proactive approach to shape the strategic environment in Asia."

"A masterful survey of the clash of ideas, interests and powers that will define the security order of the next few decades. This book is robust, undiplomatic, and sometimes scary to read."

"Gary Schmitt has assembled a superlative cast of foreign policy experts to examine one of the greatest long-term challenges that the United States faces. It is not, as he writes, the rise of China per se but rather the rise of a 'People's Republic of China' that causes concern for American policymakers. Those who read this invaluable book will not have their concerns allayed, but they will gain a much better understanding of the issues involved. This is the best single-volume overview of U.S.-China relations that anyone has produced."