Contrasting Visions : United States, China, and World Order

The complex relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China has become strained in recent years, particularly with the accidental bombing in 1999 of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter and an American reconnaissance plane.

While the two nations maintain relatively stable relations, they are often at logger-heads on a variety of issues, ranging from missile defence to international trade.

Such disagreements are unavoidable, owing to fundamentally different views on how the world should be ordered, but these differences need not be a source of conflict.

Indeed, each side has little to gain from confrontation with the other.

Gill examines four key "pillars" of world order and provides a framework to more clearly recognize, understand and respond to the "contrasting visions" of China and the US.

He believes that Sino-American friction has its roots not in a "laundry list" of various contentious issues, but rather in the more basic questions of how the world is to be ordered.

From this vantage point, the book illuminates these obstacles and provides a path to overcome them.